Day after, Nitish Kumar says don’t read political meaning in RJD Iftar

Nitish Kumar said his participation in Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s Iftar party should not be given any political colour. RJD state president Jagdanand Singh said possible realignment of RJD-JD(U) would be on 'conditions'.

PATNA: A day after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar attended opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s Iftar party that generated a lot of hype, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader on Saturday said his participation in the event should not be given any political colour.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar attended opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s Iftar party on Friday, generating lot of curiosity in political circles. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“We organise such Iftar party where we invite all people from different political parties. Other parties also host such events. If somebody invites us, we attend those events as a mark of respect. I went there (Iftar party) because they invited me. No political meaning should be derived from it,” Kumar said, while talking to reporters after paying tributes to eminent freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh at a state event in Patna.

On the other hand, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) state president Jagdanand Singh today downplayed speculations of Kumar coming to the RJD side once again saying that a possible realignment of RJD-JD(U) would be on “conditions.”

“If CM Kumar wants to come to the RJD, he has to first give up his post of chief minister and accept Tejashwi as chief minister. We cannot welcome a person who wants to remain as chief minister. It is impossible. The RJD has no posts vacant for him. Kumar has been siding with communal forces,” Singh said.

He also added that Nitish Kumar has shown his wavering traits and cannot be accepted back in socialist forces without giving up his CM’s post.

The RJD state president’s comment hold significance as the former is considered close to RJD president Lalu Prasad and known as a party’s top most strategist, who was instrumental in stitching an RJD-JD(U) tie up before 2015 assembly polls. The leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has refrained from making any comment on Nitish Kumar’s visit to his iftar event even as his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav yesterday claimed that an “RJD-JD(U) government was possible soon”.

The JD(U) strongman’s visit to the RJD’s iftar party on Friday on the eve of union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Ara had generated lot of curiosity in political circles and set off speculations that the chief minister had used the event to send across a message to the BJP, the key partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), that his option of realignment with his old rival is still open.

However, BJP leaders today downplayed Kumar’s participation at the RJD’s Iftar party. Deputy chief minister Tar Kishore Prasad said people go to Iftar parties and there was not much political significance in the chief minister’s attendance at the RJD’s Iftar party. Industries minister Syed Shahanawaj Hussain, who also attended the RJD’s event, expressed similar feelings.

Incidentally, Tej Pratap today strongly reacted to Jagdanand Singh’s comments downplaying a possible RJD-JD(U) tie up to form government. “He is our senior. But Jagdanand’s comments are all baseless and he should best refrain from making such comments,” Yadav said. The elder Yadav scion has had strained relations with Singh and accused the latter of running the state unit of the party like an authoritarian.

Earlier at a state event to remember freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh, Kumar said Vijayutsav is organised for in the state to remember Kunwar Singh’s role in leading the first war of independence in 1857 and his valour to beat the British. “I have been advocating for long that Vijayutsav should be organised at the national level so that the younger generation and future generation should know the contribution of the great leader in India’s freedom struggle,” Kumar said.