“Same Share That…”: Nitish Kumar’s sulking assistant recalls a 1994 challenge

Patna:

Disgruntled JD(U) parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha on Tuesday compared his rebellion to the challenge Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar posed to RJD President Lalu Yadav three decades ago.

Speaking to reporters in Patna, the recalcitrant leader claimed he had “boundless reverence” (agaadh shraddha) for Mr. Kumar, but insisted that the seventy-year-old was no longer able to exercise his own will, resulting in JD(U’s vulnerability).

“I have been asked to clarify what I meant by claiming my own share (are) at the party. I am doing that today,” Mr Kushwaha, a former Union minister, said rhetorically.

“I am talking about the same share that Nitish Kumar had demanded in the famous 1994 rally when Lalu Yadav hesitated to give our leader his right,” he said.

Mr Kushwaha referred to the ‘Luv Kush’ gathering in Patna, a veritable gathering of Kurmis and Koeris upset by the supposed hegemony of numerically powerful Yadavs of which Mr Yadav, who was then at the helm of Bihar, was seen as its embodiment.

Mr Kumar’s presence at the meeting had set the tone for his separation from the undivided Janata Dal and charting an independent political journey.

Mr Kushwaha, who had returned to JD(U) in March 2017 after merging his Rashtriya Lok Samata party, said he had no powers as parliamentary board chairman.

The post was just a “jhunjhuna(rattle of a child), he said.

He also rejected the Legislative Council membership which he was rewarded as a “lollipop” shortly after his return to JD(U).

“I relinquished my positions in the Rajya Sabha in the past and later in the Union Council of Ministers… The party can take back my party post and strip me of my status as an MLC if it thinks these are great privileges that are due to me granted me,” he added irritably.

Mr Kushwaha claimed that unlike in 2013 when the JD(U) first split with the BJP, “the specter of disintegration now looms large on our party”.

However, he evaded a direct answer when asked if he felt the threat came from a resurgent RJD led by Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

“But I must point out that the Prime Minister has consistently said in his own public statements that all his moves, regrouping with the BJP in 2017, parting ways last year and joining the Mahagathbandhan and even choosing candidates in elections , were in question. of others. Therein lies the problem. He does not exercise his own judgment.”

Mr. Kushwaha also claimed that the extreme backward classes are becoming increasingly disenchanted with JD(U).

Referring to the attack on his convoy in Bhojpur district on Monday, Mr Kushwaha claimed that the local administration had tried to cover up the matter and sought the personal intervention of the Director General of Police or the Chief Secretary.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)