Nitish Kumar, party leader on why he ditched Lalu Yadav

Nitish Kumar recently abandoned grand alliance in Bihar and joined NDA (File)

Patna:

A senior JD(U) leader on Wednesday alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar “humiliated” RJD chief Lalu Prasad by blocking him ahead of Lok Sabha polls “Attempts by allies to cancel the alliance.

MLC and JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar made this claim, referring to the RJD’s rough treatment of the Congress.

“The Congress has been a reliable ally of the RJD, even though the alliance over the years resulted in the RJD losing its own vote share. The only time the Congress saw its vote share rise in recent years was in the 2015 Bihar assembly polls When we are also part of the alliance,” said JD(U) leaders led by Nitish Kumar.

RJD president Lalu Prasad unilaterally offered party tickets to candidates for around a dozen seats in Bihar, leaving the Congress almost unprepared and hoping the domineering ally would address its concerns.

“What kind of alliance is the RJD and the Congress, where the former gives out party tickets to people at will without any regard to the interests of the latter?” asked Neeraj Kumar, one of the seats for which Mr Prasad has ticketed It is Aurangabad, where the Congress wants to field former MP Nikhil Kumar.

Furthermore, it is learned that the RJD has promised a party ticket to JD(U) turncoat Bima Bharti from Purnea, a seat from which former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav was said to have secured a Congress ticket when he last merged with the Jan Adhikar Party. Week.

Neeraj Kumar said: “It is not for nothing that our leader Nitish Kumar has been seeking early seat sharing in the Indian bloc. He sensed the RJD’s plan to humiliate allies. So he gave them A lesson.”

Alluding to Kumar’s exit from the opposition alliance that stripped the RJD of power and deprived Lalu Prasad’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav of deputy chief Minister.

Fishing in troubled waters, the JD(U) leader added: “It is time for the Congress party to show it has a backbone. Rahul Gandhi launched a nationwide padayatra campaign across the country, becoming the first party since the 20th century The first leader to do so since the 1990s.”

He pointed out that in the last Lok Sabha polls, the Congress won one seat in Bihar while the RJD won nothing despite looking strong.

“Hopefully, the RJD will learn a lesson from its allies in the Lok Sabha polls. Even if that does not happen, the people of Bihar will teach the party a lesson,” the MLC said.

Meanwhile, RJD and Congress leaders insisted that the seat-sharing would be “announced in an amicable manner”, pointing out that Tejashwi Yadav and BPCC chief Akhilesh Prasa on Tuesday In a joint statement issued by Akhilesh Prasad Singh in Delhi, they said the candidates would be formally announced upon their return to Patna.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)