Lalu meets Nitish; all is well, claims Tejashwi

Patna, Jan 19 (PTI) RJD president Lalu Prasad on Friday called on ally Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar who also heads the JD(U), at his residence.

Prasad was accompanied by his son Tejashwi Yadav, the Deputy CM, who briefly spoke to journalists upon returning to their residence after the meeting, and asserted that rumours of a rift were divorced from “ground reality”.

“I feel sorry when you people ask questions that seem so divorced from ground reality. Why is there so much curiosity about when seat-sharing was likely to be final in Mahagathbandhan? Has the BJP-led NDA sorted it out in its own camp? Nobody cares about that,” said Yadav.

Notably, the leaders of the JD(U), a relatively new entrant to the Mahagathbandhan, have been calling for an expeditious seat-sharing deal, a suggestion which was rebuffed by the RJD supremo a couple of days ago.

Speculations are rife that the JD(U), which won 16 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that it fought as an NDA partner, would not agree to a lesser number this time while the RJD, which drew a blank, would insist on a lion’s share citing its superior numerical strength in the assembly.

Yadav was also asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s interview to a Hindi daily in which his response to a query on Kumar, who dumped the BJP less than two years ago, was being interpreted as an admission of doors not being shut on the JD(U) boss.

The young RJD leader replied sarcastically, “I do not know. Maybe you people have better knowledge of what Amit Shah wanted to imply.”

Yadav, who is on the ED radar, and has skipped more than one summonses issued by the agency, said, “We are running a government that will not be distracted from the agenda of working for the people. The RJD and the JD(U) are firmly together and will jointly contest the Lok Sabha polls to defeat the BJP.”

Kumar, an old BJP partner, had called off the alliance in August 2023, accusing the saffron party of trying to split the JD(U) and vowing to defeat the NDA in 2024 by bringing together the entire opposition.

He played a key role in INDIA bloc’s formation, and hosted the first meeting in Patna of leaders opposed to the BJP who agreed to huddle together burying past differences.

The longest-serving CM of the state took over as the JD(U) president recently, replacing close aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh “Lalan” who was rumoured to have grown too close to the RJD camp.

A few months ago, Kumar had chided the Congress for losing focus on INDIA out of its preoccupation with assembly polls in a few states.

Last week, he turned down the offer of convener’s post in the INDIA bloc, asserting that he did not want a designation for himself and suggesting that the coalition should instead focus on better coordination among partners.

However, a key aide claiming to have witnessed what transpired at the coalition’s virtual meeting, said Kumar was “peeved at the offer as it came belatedly and seemed like an afterthought, without regard to his stature as the architect of the alliance”.