RJD Chief Lalu Yadav has claimed that the current Bihar Chief minister, Nitish Kumar, wanted to return back in the Mahagathbandhan fold within six months of walking out from the alliance and going with the BJP. Lalu Yadav has made these claims in his soon to be released book ‘Gopalganj to Raisina: My Political Journey’, co-authored by Nalin Verma.
Lalu Yadav in his book has also claimed that Nitish Kumar had sent JD(U) Vice President and close confidant of Nitish Kumar, Prashant Kishore as a messenger to Lalu on five different occasions where he tried to convince Lalu to facilitate Nitish Kumar entry back in the Mahagathbandhan or the ‘secular fold’.
“Kishore seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party’s support to JD (U), the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan. Though I was not bitter with Nitish, I had lost trust in him completely. Moreover, I was not sure how the people who had voted for the grand alliance in 2015, and the other parties that had united against the BJP all over the country, would react if I accepted Kishor’s offer” Lalu Yadav said in his forthcoming book.
Prashant Kishore slammed Lalu and termed his claims bogus. He also added that it is just a poor attempt to seek relevance. “The claims made by Lalu ji as reported are BOGUS. This is nothing but a poor attempt seeking relevance by a leader whose best days are behind him. Yes, we did meet many times before I joined JDU, but if I were to tell what all was discussed then he would be quite embarrassed.” Prashant Kishore tweeted.
https://twitter.com/PrashantKishor/status/1114022017898958849
RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav reiterated Lalu’s claims and said: “Nitish Kumar sent messages to my father, to me and various Congress leaders with a slew of deals within six months of allying with BJP.”Further mounting his attack on Prashant Kishore he questioned “Does Kishore meets anyone without an agenda?” Tejaswi also added that Nitish Kumar will never be accepted back in the Mahagathbandhan “even if he joins today”.
Senior JD (U) leader K C Tyagi also refuted Lalu’s claims and said “I can say this in the capacity of one of the top functionary of the JD(U) that Nitish Kumar never wanted to get back to RJD after severing ties with it in 2007. Had there been any such Intention, then it must have come out in the internal Party discussions. JD(U)’s rejection of RJD is permanent and Nitish Kumar will be the last person to make a compromise on corruption. Thus, the claims made by Lalu are false,”.
The book ‘Gopalganj to Raisina: My Political Journey’ is the autobiography of Lalu Yadav.