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‘Make him Congress president,’ says RJD leader in a swipe at Kanhaiya Kumar
Two days after former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress, Tiwary took a dig at Kanhaiya and dared the Congress to make him the national president as the post has been lying vacant.
The discomfort in the Rashtriya Janata Dal after Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress has begun to surface. Cracks have appeared in the relationship between the Congress and the RJD in Bihar after senior RJD leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwary took a swipe at Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar and Rahul Gandhi, after the former Left leader joined the Congress recently.
Two days after former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress, Tiwary took a dig at Kanhaiya and dared the Congress to make him the national president as the post has been lying vacant.
Tiwary had earlier too attacked the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi.
Describing Kanhaiya “as an expert in the art of delivering speeches”, Tiwary said, “At one point of time Leftists were seeing their future in Kanhaiya Kumar. Now Congress is seeing its future in him. Congress should make him (Kanhaiya Kumar) its president. For the last two years, there is no permanent president in the party,” said Tiwary and added that Congress is looking at him to sail their ship out of the crisis. “He said in his speech at the time of joining that if the big ship does not survive, what will happen to the small boats? It was a historic statement,” he added.
The veteran leader rubbished talk that the former student union leader poses a threat to Tejashwi Yadav. “During 2019 Lok Sabha elections, RJD’s candidate stood second in Begusarai. Kanhaiya Kumar was third. In such a situation, he hardly poses a problem to Yadav. He worked to defeat the RJD candidate in the Lok Sabha elections and in fact helped BJP by dividing secular votes,” he alleged.
Tiwary, who had criticized Rahul Gandhi took a dig at him again and said that he had full sympathy with him. “Congress trusts outsiders more. The party has not been able to choose its permanent president for the last two years. He must first trust his people. A permanent chairman should be elected. I myself want Congress to be strong. This will strengthen the Grand Alliance,” said Tiwary.
The discomfort in the RJD can also be gauged from the fact that even RJD spokesperson Bhai Birendra, MLA, refused to recognize Kanhaiya.
Last year, Tiwary had taken a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that “he (Rahul Gandhi) is unable to inspire confidence in the public”.
RJD’s criticism of Kanhaiya did not go down well with Congress, which alleged that Tiwary “was being guided by RSS ideology.”
“Instead of strengthening the Grand Alliance, he is trying to weaken it by toeing a different ideology,” said Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore.
