Nitish should quit to save face: JD(U) leader

Senior Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Shakuni Choudhary on Tuesday lambasted former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for his “ego-fuelled” politics, bringing major embarrassment to the party and undermining its recent coalition with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.

“Nitish can no more provide us leadership. The developments in the recent past show that he is on a downhill journey,” Choudhary said. While slamming JD-U’s coalition with the RJD, he went on to say that the only way for Nitish to save face was to hang up his boots and not continue making mistakes in attempts to feed his ego.

“Ever since the JD-U has formalised a tie-up with the RJD, Lalu Prasad has missed no opportunity to humiliate Nitish. The latest incident was a bypoll rally in Bhagalpur where Lalu said: ‘If Nitish wants to sit in my lap, should I throw him away?’. If Nitish has even an iota of self-respect, he should retire from active politics. He has been committing one mistake after another just because of his ego problem,” Choudhary, a six-term legislator and three-time MP, said.

The former minister’s politically controversial comments assume significance particularly because of his son Samrat Choudhary, who is the urban development minister in  Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi-led JD-U government.

Interestingly, Samrat is an RJD turncoat who revolted against Lalu to join the Nitish bandwagon on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. Samrat, however, was only rewarded a ministerial berth after Manjhi became chief minister in May.

The angst of Choudhary Senior is likely to create an unfavourable environment for the “grand alliance” against the BJP in Bhagalpur, Banka and Parbatta, where he is said to have considerable clout.

The Assembly bypoll will take place in these places, along with seven other constituencies, on August 21. It is precisely because of Choudhary’s apparent influence that JD-U president Sharad Yadav made frantic efforts to placate the septuagenarian Kurmi leader, who is incidentally from the same caste as Nitish.