Patna: After days of logjam over a tie up between Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, acrimony surfaced on Tuesday between the two regional parties marked with war of words between their leaders.
Reflecting continued discomfort within the RJD over declaring Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, RJD vice president Raghubansh Prasad Singh today said there was no need to declare Kumar as a CM nominee.
"There are so many personalities in RJD who can become a good chief minister," Singh, a former Union Minister and close associate of party president Lalu Prasad, said.
Singh has been expressing discomfort over Kumar's candidature as a CM nominee for some time now.
Media reports suggest RJD's opposition to Nitish Kumar's candidature was due to its apprehension of losing the crucial Yadav votes as a majority of the backward Yadav caste constituting of about 14 per cent of the state's population, accuses Kumar of working against their interests during the NDA rule.
The JD(U), in a strong retort to the senior RJD leader's statement against Kumar, alleged him of helping BJP.
"By making such assertions, Singh and others seem to be on the BJP pay roll and making statements to benefit the BJP," state minister Shyam Rajak told PTI.
Though the RJD chief was in favour of joining hands with the JD(U) to defeat the BJP, but "by making such statements these leaders are only creating roadblocks," Rajak, a close confidante of Nitish Kumar, said.
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav refused to speak on assertions of Lalu Prasad or Singh over the continued logjam and told reporters in Madhepura that statements and counter statements by leaders of the two parties were complicating the issue.
The leadership of Nitish Kumar in the alliance also appears to be a bone of contention between JD(U) and RJD.
The Congress, in the mean time, has manifested its preference for Nitish Kumar.
Bihar Congress president Ashok Choudhary after meeting party president Sonia Gandhi had yesterday said Nitish Kumar has proved to be a good CM and putting forward his face in the elections would help the anti-BJP grouping.
Amid acrimonious exchanges between the leaders of RJD
and JD(U), a senior member of Nitish Kumar cabinet Ramai Ram also said declaring a CM nominee before the elections would not be a good proposition.
"It would be good if the alliance goes to polls with prominent faces of all partner parties instead of one. The choice of CM candidate can be done by leaders of the alliance partners taking into consideration people's response," Ramai Ram, an eight-term MLA from Bochaha (SC) in Muzaffarpur, said.
Ram, who had claimed the post of Deputy CM when Kumar was chosen as CM for the fourth time in February last and who resigned as minister in-charge of East Champaran against the appointment of Vijay Chaudhary as in-charge of Raxual to oversee relief work in wake of the recent tropical cyclone and earthquakes, has been blowing hot and cold for long.
Amid the acrimonious exchange between JD(U) and RJD, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi today tried to lure both RJD and Congress towards himself.
"Congress or RJD whosoever helps getting rid of Nitish Kumar, I am ready to go with that party," Manjhi told reporters in Sasaram.
Manjhi, a known detractor of Kumar and who floated the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) recently, said he has no reservation in joining hands with the BJP to "make Bihar Nitish-free."
Manjhi, who was positioning himself as leader of the Dalits who constitute about 22 per cent of the state's population, turned a bitter critic of his mentor Nitish Kumar after his unceremonious exit from the Chief Minister's post.
RJD president Lalu Prasad had recently put a spanner in the Janata Parivar merger exercise by advocating inclusion of Manjhi in anti-BJP front, which was vehemently opposed by Nitish Kumar and his party.
