Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Upendra Kushwaha on Wednesday said the party should project someone from within its fold as the face for the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, instead of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who is from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
“The RJD people keep saying a deal was struck at the time of formation of the alliance. This has led to turmoil in the party. Only the CM can put an end to rumours by announcing that he was not backing Tejashwi as the leader for 2025 assembly polls,” he told reporters in Patna.
“Think of the period before Nitish Kumar became the CM. If this happens, nobody can save JD-U from sinking. Nitishji did a lot of hard work to pull the state out of that frightful situation prior to 2005 and the same cannot be repeated. The party can be saved only when the deal issue is ended once and for all and any leader with faith in social justice from within the party, forget about Upendra Kushwaha, is projected as leader. There are many competent leaders in JD-U,” he added.
His comment came a day after the JD(U) cracked the whip on the disgruntled leader 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,” state JD-U president Umesh Kushwaha said on Tuesday.
He said 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 added.
On Wednesday, Kushwaha said he would happily function as “an ordinary party worker, worth five rupees”, if the JD(U) leadership was assumed by “anybody from among the Luv Kush Samaj (Kurmis and Koeris) or the EBCs whose aspirations have been the party’s driving force”.
He said that most of the leaders and workers in the party were upset, barring a few moving around the chief minister. “The problem is that even the CM is not being allowed to have his way. The fact is that Nitishji is unable to do anything that he wants. If he had taken his own decisions, he would have never allowed Bihar that he built with so much effort slip into another spell of turmoil. Who can forget the situation prior to 2005 and it was Nitish Kumar’s ability that pulled the state out of despondency,” he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also hit out at the JD(U) over the issue.
“If Nitish Kumar accepts Tejashwi as his leader, there can be nothing more unfortunate. He should look for someone from within the JD-U to succeed him, preferably an EBC or a Dalit leader. Kushwaha is a senior leader and he is saying nothing wrong,” said BJP spokesman Arvibd Kumar.
Nitish Kumar has consistently rejected the statements of Kushwaha, who has been relentless in attacking his own party, saying such outbursts would not make any difference and the JD-U was getting stronger.
Kushwaha has also called a meeting of party workers in Patna on February 19-20. He said the JD-U is a party formed by late Sharad Yadav and not Nitish Kumar, who had formed Samata Party.
(With PTI inputs)
