Days after senior JDU leaders Pawan Verma and Prashant Kishor expressed their displeasure over the party’s support for the Citizenship Amendment Act, the duo has been shown the door by the JDU.
आख़िर हुई विदाई। जेडीयू ने प्रशांत किशोर और पवन वर्मा को तत्काल प्रभाव से निष्कासित किया। pic.twitter.com/xruTC0UnWl
— Akhilesh Sharma अखिलेश शर्मा (@akhileshsharma1) January 29, 2020
An official statement was released by the JDU, informing about the expulsion of the two rebel leaders. In the statement, the party cited indiscipline as the reason for their ouster. “It is evident from the conduct of Pawan Verma and Prashant Kishor that they want to remain bound by the discipline of the party and therefore both have been expelled from the party as per Clause 21 of the discipline-related rules of the party’s constitution”.
Reacting to his expulsion, Prashant Kishor took to Twitter to express his best wishes for the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in “retaining” his CM position.
Thank you @NitishKumar. My best wishes to you to retain the chair of Chief Minister of Bihar. God bless you.??
— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) January 29, 2020
The decision to sack the duo came after a war of words broke out between the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Prashant Kishor. Earlier yesterday, Kumar had made a sensational revelation that Prashant Kishor was inducted into the JD(U) on the recommendations of Amit Shah. Hours later, Prashant Kishor dismissed JDU supremo Nitish Kumar’s statement as “a lie”.
The rift within the Janata Dal-United surfaced after the party, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act in Parliament last month. The election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, who is also the vice-president of the party had opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act claiming that act is unconstitutional. Kishor has been consistently attacking the Modi government, especially after the historic CAA was passed in the parliament
Along with party senior leader Pavan Varma, Kishor had openly targetted the Modi government over the CAA and had publicly urged Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to reconsider the decision to support the CAA keeping in mind the public sentiments.