PATNA/KOLKATA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed his displeasure, Monday, over a tweet by senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, saying that the JD(U) chief was instrumental in the Bhagalpur seat being denied to him.
“It’s unfortunate if he believes so and if has said as much. As far as I know, and I know personally, it was me who was instrumental in he being fielded from Bhagalpur in the initial phase of his career. He should amend his comment,” Kumar said, when his attention was drawn to a tweet by Hussein during a programme on contemporary politics hosted by a TV channel.
Shahnawaz, former BJP MP from Bhagalpur in eastern Bihar, who handled several Union ministry portfolios in the 13th Lok Sabha under Atal Behari Vajpayee and is currently BJP ’s national spokesperson, had on March 24 tweeted that he lost his ticket because of Nitish.
Shahnawaz, who was in Kolkata and addressed the media on Monday at the BJP headquarters, was asked whether he still stood by his tweet, to which he said, he had nothing to add.
“What I had said in my tweet, holds,” he told reporters.
The BJP had traded Bhagalpur seat with the JD(U) under a fresh seat arrangement for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Nitish has fielded Ajay Kumar Mandal as the JD(U) candidate from there. The trade-off came as a shock to many within the saffron party since Bhagalpur has been a traditional BJP seat.
Hussain’s reaction was thus not off the mark.