JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari acknowledges Modi as a threat in the polls

RAJGIR: Shivanand Tiwari, veteran Rajya Sabha MP who was recently removed as the spokesman of the Janata Dal (United), raised a few eyebrows at a party conference attended by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar when he said BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi posed a formidable threat in the coming polls unlike what a section of his party wanted to believe.

“Modi himself comes from the backward section, but he enjoys a formidable clout among the upper caste,” Tiwari said at a JD-U meet in Rajgir, Bihar, on Tuesday, which was also attended by party chief Sharad Yadav.

Addressing the meeting, Nitish Kumar sought to distance himself from Tiwari’s views on Modi by saying that one can’t become a champion of backward caste by virtue of his birth alone. “Chaudhary Charan Singh, VP Singh, Madhu Limaye and Raj Narain were not born as backward caste yet they were popular among the backwards sections,” said Kumar.