Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) on January 26 asserted that the party was "firmly with INDIA coalition" but wanted the Congress to do "introspection" with regard to alliance partners and sharing of seats.
State JD(U) president Umesh Singh Kushwaha made the statement, refuting rumours that his party, headed by the Chief Minister, was thinking of a return to the BJP-led NDA.
“All is well in Bihar’s ruling Mahagathbandhan and the media speculations are driven by some agenda,” Mr. Kushwaha told reporters.
He also said, “I met the Chief Minister yesterday as well as today. It is a routine affair. There is no truth in the rumours doing the rounds. We also reject the rumours that party MLAs have been asked to rush to Patna”.
He also made light of Mr. Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who is in RJD, sitting far from each other at the Republic Day parade, asserting that “we are firmly with INDIA coalition”.
Mr. Kushwaha, however, said, “We want the Congress, which is our alliance partner, to do some introspection with regard to its stance towards other constituents and sharing of seats. Our leader Nitish Kumar has for long been stressing on the need for early finalisation of seat-sharing deal so that we could concentrate on Lok Sabha polls”.
The statement of the JD(U) leader came in the backdrop of two Opposition bloc INDIA partners, TMC and AAP, ruling out the possibility of a truck with the Congress in West Bengal and Punjab respectively.
To a pointed query about his party's return to the NDA, which it had junked less than two years ago, the JD(U) leader said, "these are rumours spread by those with some agenda".
Mr. Kushwaha was also asked about social media posts of Rohini Acharya, daughter of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, in which she appeared to have taken a swipe at Kumar.
The JD(U) leader replied, “We take no notice of that because Rohini Acharya is not an RJD office-bearer”.
Meanwhile, when asked about the delay in seat-sharing in the opposition bloc INDIA, state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh asked, "why nobody asks about the BJP-led NDA? They, too are yet to sort out sharing of seats with allies".
Replying to another query, he said, “Nitish Kumar is our leader in Bihar. I have no idea from where rumours of his going back to NDA have emanated.”
