After severing ties with his longest time alliance partner BJP, the Janata Dal (U) on Wednesday asserted that it was “not scared of ED and CBI” following its break-up with the BJP, which rules the Centre and is often accused by the opposition of misusing investigating agencies.
“Let them unleash the agencies. We are not afraid of the CBI and ED. Only those who run companies need to live in fear. We depend on the salary we draw as MPs or MLAs besides other legal sources of personal income for survival,” said JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan at a Press conference when asked whether parting ways with the BJP would make the JD(U) vulnerable to alleged political vendetta through probe agencies.
On a query to the BJP's charge of “betrayal”, the Lok Sabha MP of the JDU accused the former ally of having deceived the coalition dharma “by weaning away our MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, who were already supporting their government”.
He also said the party's decision to snap ties with the BJP was “supported by all, including those who could not attend the Tuesdays meeting, like Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh who spoke to me over the telephone to convey that he will always back Nitish Kumar.” The JD(U) chief accused the BJP of having used the LJP, then headed by Chirag Paswan, “to field its own rebels against our candidates” in the last assembly polls.Lalan also reiterated the allegation that former JD(U) president RCP Singh had become the BJP's “agent”. However, when asked whether the ex-Union minister tried to split the party, he asserted: “Nobody can cause fissures in our ranks”.
“They (BJP) accuse us of betraying the mandate. Why did they agree to join Nitish Kumar's government in 2017? He had won the assembly polls as the Grand Alliance's Chief Ministerial candidate. They better not talk about coalition dharma after what they did to us in Arunachal,” he fumed.
Six JD(U) MLAs joined the BJP in Arunachal Pradesh in December 2020.
“The BJP will face an uphill task in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. More than 30 of their MPs are from adjoining states of Bihar and West Bengal where they may draw a blank and lose majority which will sound the death knell for the tanashahi (dictatorship),” said the JD(U) chief. He also reminded the BJP that it could win only 53 seats in the 2015 assembly polls “when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself held a record number of 42 rallies”.