PATNA: A day after RJD leader Shayam Rajak’s startling disclosure about 17 Janata Dal (United) MLAs being in touch with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Chief Minister Nitish Kumar strongly dismissed rumours of discontent within his party.
On the sidelines of a local event, Nitish stoutly denied his party MLAs were in contact with the opposition RJD. “All this is nonsense and all such rumours are false,” he told the media when asked about Rajak’s claim. Reports of discomfiture in the JD(U) camp surfaced after the Arunachal Pradesh episode involving the defection of six MLAs of Nitish’s party to the BJP — the senior ally in Bihar’s ruling NDA.
Sensing opportunity, the RJD floated a proposal for Nitish to quit the NDA and join the opposition Grand Alliance as an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The JD(U) has avoided responding to such suggestions, saying the RJD should mind its own business. Rajak’s ‘bombshell’ exploded close on the heels of the Arunachal episode.
Sources, meanwhile, said the JD(U) is treading cautiously with the CM along with senior party leaders, including newly elected party chief RCP Singh, keeping in constant touch with the party MLAs. Trashing Rajak’s claim, JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said he was trying to remain meaningful in his party. He said the JD(U) was certainly hurt by the Arunachal defection, but there was no dissent in the party. “The RJD is desperate for power after the recent Assembly poll results.
That party should be an honest opposition, a role which the people have assigned to it,” he said. On its part, the BJP has kept a low profile. On Wednesday, former BJP Rajya Sabha MP CP Thakur said that politics in Arunachal is different from that in Bihar. “The JD(U) MLAs themselves joined the BJP,” he said.