Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said his party will support the Janata Dal (United) if Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar retires from active politics, IANS reported.
Tejashwi Yadav, former deputy chief minister of Bihar, reiterated that there was no possibility of an alliance with Kumar’s party.
“If Nitish chacha [uncle] retires, we will support JD(U),” Tejashwi said at a function marking the 22nd foundation day of his party. “We do not want, at any condition, to see Nitish Kumar in grand alliance. If he joins the grand alliance again, then Tejashwi will be called greedy. How can we offer membership to those who insulted the mandate of the people? We will not allow his entry into the grand alliance.”
The grand alliance comprises the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Hindustan Awami League and Nationalist Congress Party.
Tejashwi Yadav said his party was open to the idea of inviting Bharatiya Janata Party ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha into the alliance. “We will welcome his [Kushwaha] entry into the grand alliance. The next polls are going to be a direct fight between the supporters of [BR] Ambedkar, socialism, secularism and Mahatma Gandhi on one side and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and feudal forces on the other side,” The New Indian Express quoted him as saying.
The leader of the Opposition in Bihar accused the chief minister of being responsible for his father and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav being implicated in a fodder scam. Yadav was sent to a jail in Ranchi in December after a court found him guilty in several fodder scam cases. The former chief minister, who is out of jail on bail, is being treated at a Mumbai hospital.
On June 27, Tejashwi Yadav had ruled out an alliance with Kumar’s party ahead of the 2019 General Elections. Tejashwi Yadav claimed that Kumar was “feeling uncomfortable” in the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported. he had also rubbished suggestions by leaders of its ally, the Congress, that they would consider Kumar’s return to the alliance if he leaves his tie-up with the BJP.
A day earlier, the Janata Dal (United) had said that of all parties in the National Democratic Alliance, the Janata Dal (U) would contest the highest number of seats in Bihar in the 2019 General Elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party was free to contest the elections in the state alone if it does not need an ally, it had added.
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