It's Nitish Kumar, not Sharad Yadav, who 'abandoned' JDU: Rebels

NEW DELHI: The dissident group of the Janata Dal (United) has rejected the claim by Nitish Kumar’s party that Sharad Yadav’s participation in the Patna rally, organised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, was tantamount to him “voluntarily” giving up the party membership –– an argument meant to seek his disqualification from the Rajya Sabha.

Instead, the Sharad Yadav group argued that it was Nitish Kumar who was guilty of violating the party line, and thus “voluntarily given up the membership of JDU”. They said they would move “the appropriate forum” to seek action against Kumar.

In a reply to a letter that Kumar’s camp had sent to Yadav through JDU general secretary KC Tyagi, suspended JDU general secretary Javed Raza said it was Kumar who abandoned the party.

“In the JDU national executive meeting on December 20-21, 2015, we had categorically affirmed the basic principle on which the Bihar elections were to be fought. The manifesto of the party and the Mahagadbandhan was specially to stop the BJP…Even as late as April 2016, the resolve was to embark on a programme to defeat BJP…,” the letter read.

He then added, “In this context... it is Nitish Kumar and yourself (Tyagi) who have abandoned the basic principles of JDU and have voluntarily given up the membership of the party”.