Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's reported outburst against former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday drew flak from close aides of the JD(U) president.
Reports have surfaced in the media that at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Delhi a day earlier, Gandhi had called Kumar a "traitor".
Kumar, who had snapped ties with the BJP in 2022, formed a new government with the support of the Congress, the RJD and the Left, and played a key role in the formation of the INDIA bloc.
However, unhappy with the reluctance of alliance partners to name him as the convener of the new coalition, Kumar abruptly returned to the NDA in 2024, weeks before the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls.
Responding to the reported remark by Gandhi, Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh "Lalan", who was the JD(U)'s national president when the INDIA bloc came into being, put out an angry post on X.
Lalan slammed the former Congress president for her "objectionable remarks", charged her party with "destroying democracy during Emergency" and asserted "Nitish Kumar is adored by his people. He does not need Sonia Gandhi's certificate".
He also claimed that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi "democracy has grown strong and the nation is marching towards prosperity".
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, when asked by journalists here about Gandhi's remarks, wryly said, "I do not know what has been said by whom."
But going by the reports in the media, the Congress seems to have had a belated realisation of the value of Nitish Kumar, he said.
"I would also like INDIA bloc partners to remember our leader's contribution. It was he who travelled the length and the breadth of the country and invited leaders of various hues to the meeting in Patna where the idea of a new coalition was conceived," added Jha.
(With inputs from PTI)
