Nitish Kumar JD (U) Formally accept the invitation to join the BJP-led NDA.
NEW DELHI / PATNA : While rival Janata Dal (United) camps headed by Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav are holding parallel meetings in Patna, the Nitish-led JD-U faction has passed a resolution to join the NDA. it had exited abruptly in 2013 ending a partnership that had lasted nearly two decades.
The homecoming for the JD (U) comes weeks after the Bihar Chief Minister exited the grand alliance with the Congress and Lalu Yadav’s RJD, a rainbow coalition that the opposition believed was the template to prevent the BJP’s return in 2019. The Sharad Yadav faction has attacked the Nitish camp for walking out of the Mahagathbandhan alliance with the RJD and Congress in the state.
A national executive committee meeting of the JD(U) has been called at its national president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s official residence where the party is expected to formally accept the invitation to join the BJP-led NDA.”A resolution that the JD-U will join the BJP-led NDA was unanimously approved in the meeting,” a senior party leader said.
The national executive gave its consent to the invitation of BJP president Amit Shah to the JD(U) to join the NDA fold, on a day when former party president Sharad Yadav, along with party’s Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari, is organising a ‘Jan-Adalat Sammelan’ here. Loyalists of Sharad Yadav, who has opposed joining hands with the BJP, are also holding a programme called the ‘Jan Adalat’ at S K Memorial Hall.
Sharad Yadav, who had co-founded the JD (U), was removed as leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha. But he hasn’t been suspended by Nitish Kumar’s party so far. but JD (U) general secretary KC Tyagi served a stern warning to his former mentor Sharad Yadav.
The two meetings make it evident that battlelines within the JD(U) are drawn and the party may be heading for a vertical split. JD(U) principal secretary general K C Tyagi has, however, maintained that there is no split and that Yadav “has left voluntarily”.Tyagi said, “The national executive meeting at the One Anne Marg residence of the chief minister is the party’s official programme.”
Meanwhile, JD(U)) leader KC Tyagi said that senior leader Sharad Yadav has every right to put forward his points of disagreement with the alliance, but he shouldn’t attend RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s programme as it will break their trust. “Sharad Yadav is invited for the JD(U) national executive meet and he can sort out differences, but he shouldn’t attend Lalu Yadav’s programme. We will lose our faith in him, if he does so. He is one of the founders of the party, therefore, he can put forward his views in the meeting,” Tyagi told media here.
JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on July 26 snapped ties with the Grand Alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.The JD(U) has 12 members in Parliament, two in the Lok Sabha and 10 in the Rajya Sabha. Its leader in the Rajya Sabha Sharad Yadav has rebelled against the alliance with the BJP but apparently does not enjoy much support among other party’s lawmakers.
Earlier this week, the party suspended its 21 party leaders, including some former minister and former MLAs, for supporting former party chief Sharad Yadav during his three-day visit to the state. The JD (U) also removed Sharad Yadav — who opposed the party’s decision to ally with the BJP in Bihar — as their leader in the Rajya Sabha and replaced him with RCP Singh. (With input from Patna Bureau).
