Sharad Yadav disapproves of realignment as Lalu Prasad waits for him in wings

NEW DELHI: JDU Parliamentary Party leader Sharad Yadav has publicly disapproved of party chief Nitish Kumar’s decision to realign with the BJP by asserting what the Bihar CM had done was “unfortunate” and unacceptable. Yadav’s assertion came a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad welcomed him to take the lead in fighting BJP and the Nitish-BJP alliance.

“I don’t agree with the decision in Bihar, it is unfortunate. The people’s mandate was not for this,” Yadav told reporters outside Parliament House on Monday. Yadav had told ET last week that then partners JDURJD-Congress should keep the alliance intact to protect the “anti-BJP mandate of the people.” Sources close to him said that he had spurned efforts by some central ministers to coopt him and was livid with the efforts of certain quarters to “belittle” him after he “refused to fall in line”.

By publicly disapproving Nitish Kumar’s action, Sharad Yadav has advertised he is on the warpath and has left it to Kumar to counter him through words or action, even as Prasad waits in the wings to rally behind him along with the Congress.