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Nitish downplays visit to Lalu’s family, RJD says no chance of tie-up till Tejashwi made CM
RJD’s state unit president Jagdanand Singh, who is a close aide of Tejashwi’s father and party chief Lalu Yadav, said any realignment of his party with Kumar’s JD-U was only possible if the latter gave up the post of chief minister.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday downplayed his attendance at the Iftaar party hosted by opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav the previous day, saying no political meaning should be read into it.
“ We organise such Iftaar parties where we invite people from different political parties. Other parties also host such events. I went there because they invited me. No political meaning should be seen in it,” Kumar told reporters after paying tributes to freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh at a state event in Patna.
RJD’s state unit president Jagdanand Singh, who is a close aide of Tejashwi’s father and party chief Lalu Yadav, said any realignment of his party with Kumar’s JD-U was only possible if the latter gave up the post of chief minister.
“If Kumar wants to come to the RJD, he has to first give up his post of chief minister for Tejashwi. We cannot welcome a person who wants to remain chief minister . It is impossible. RJD has no posts vacant for him. Kumar has been siding with communal forces,” said Singh, who is said to have played a key role in stitching RJD-JD-U alliance that swept the the 2015 assembly polls.
Tejashwi Yadav has refrained from making any comment on CM Kumar’s visit to his Iftaar event, though his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav claimed on Friday that an RJD-JD-U government could soon become a possibility.
Kumar’s visit to Lalu Yadav’s family on Friday came on eve of union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Bihar.
However, the BJP, which is part of the alliance government headed by Kumar, too downplayed the event. Deputy chief minister Tar Kishore Prasad (BJP) said there was not much political significance of the event.
