The ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in Bihar on Tuesday cracked the whip on its rebel leader Upendra Kushwaha, saying he was no more than a primary member.
“Upendra Kushwaha has no stature in front of chief minister Nitish Kumar. He has no sense of party decorum. The way he has been speaking, he has lost all dignity. He has neither any principle nor any ideology. Kushwaha is playing in BJP’s lap and will soon realise its repercussions,” said state JD-U president Umesh Kushwaha.
“Upendra Kushwaha is writing his own nemesis. The party does not take notice of him anymore. We have 75 lakh primary members and he is just one of them. We have held elections at the block and district level. The state committee has not been formed and he is nowhere. Even a small party worker can present his views on the proper platform, but what Upendra Kushwaha has been doing smacks of some agenda. He works only in self interest,” he said, referring to the rebel leader’s position as JD-U’s parliamentary board chairman.
The state JD-U president said Upendra Kushwaha had also gone to the Grand Alliance (GA) earlier and had accepted Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as his leader. “What has changed now? Nitish Kumar is at the helm and the state is progressing. The nation is looking up to him. This has upset the BJP, which sees the prospect of losing all 40 seats in Bihar and therefore, leaders like Upendra Kushwaha are being used to weaken the JD-U, but such designs will not work. Upendra Kushwaha has no political base or credibility,” he said.
Umesh Kushwaha’s remarks came after Upendra Kushwaha said JD-U was not a party of any individual, but of crores of workers. “If it is being projected that JD-U is a party of Nitish Kumar, it is wrong. It was late Sharad Yadav who formed the party. Nitish Kumar had formed Samata Party, but it was later merged. Sharad ji was later driven away from the party to capture it,” he said.
Upendra Kushwaha, who served as a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first cabinet but has been in political wilderness after successive electoral losses since then, also contradicted remarks of the JD-U state president, which were also reiterated by party’s national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh.
“It is the party’s letters that have kept referring me as parliamentary board chairman. I have always said it was no more than a baby toy and the JD-U top leaders have validated it. I am not here to cling on to any post. If Nitish Kumar says, I will resign from all positions,” he said.
Last week, Upendra Kushwaha had written an open letter to party workers for a meeting on February 19-20 in Patna, demanding there should be immediate talks on the “special deal” with the RJD and talks of much imminent merger to end the growing confusion.
