The relationship between RJD and JD-U continue to be blow-hot-blow-cold. On Tuesday, JD-U general secretary KC Tyagi said something that surely is not going to amuse RJD. Tyagi reportedly said that JD-U was much more comfortable with the BJP during their 17-year-long partnership.
“We were much more comfortable under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. But we have ideological differences with the Narendra Modi government on issues like Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and Ram Janmabhoomi,” the JDU general secretary said.
It could be noted that Nitish Kumar’s JD-U had snapped its 17-year-long ties with the BJP in the run up to the 2014 general elections, after BJP announced Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate. It subsequently joined hands with the Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD for the 2015 Bihar assembly elections.
But much water has flown since then. Nitish Kumar supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation. In return, PM Modi praised and supported the Bihar Chief Minister for his prohibition policy. Last month, Kumar had skipped Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s ‘unity lunch’ to attend a luncheon meeting with PM Modi. And now Nitish Kumar’s party has gone a step further by announcing its support to NDA’s Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.
“We have made it clear that our decision to support NDA’s Presidential candidate is a one-time affair. I do not know why some ‘friendly parties’ want to make it a permanent affair,” Tyagi reportedly said, which hints at the possibility of JD-U going back to the BJP due to attitude of RJD.
Earlier RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav had termed JD-U’s support to NDA nominee for the Presidential election “aetihask bhool (historical blunder)” and appealed Kumar to mend the “historic blunder” by supporting “Bihar ki Beti” Meera Kumar, who is the Opposition candidate for the Presidential election.
“We have taken this decision after thinking on all aspects. And as far as JD-U is concerned, it has always taken independent decisions,” Nitish had retorted. “There is no doubt about the result. I have great respect for ‘Bihar Ki Beti’ (Meira Kumar). But the Bihar Ki Beti has been nominated only to lose,” the Bihar Chief Minister had said.
Ever since Nitish Kumar announced support to NDA Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, both Congress and the RJD have been taking swipe at Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad’s son and Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has launched veiled attack on Kumar calling his decision “unprincipled” and “ego-centric”.
There has been a barrage of corruption charges involving Lalu Prasad and his family members, which is not helping the mahagathbandhan either as Nitish Kumar wants a clean image for his tenure.
