After the fire, it is time to douse it. The JD(U) took the initiative on Wednesday to pour water on the fire ignited by the statements of some senior leaders of the maha gathbandhan which created apprehension that the alliance was on brink of disintegration.
A day after JD(U) secretary general KC Tyagi stated in Delhi that unfriendly statement by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was intolerable and might shorten the life of the alliance, he relented on Wednesday and asserted that there was no problem in the alliance and that his party has absolutely no intention to go back to BJP led NDA. Tyagi also clarified that by saying that his party was more comfortable in the company of NDA he was actually referring to the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and not the present leadership of the BJP.
Nitish at a function said that he has a commitment with the people of Bihar to serve them and would go to any extent to honour that commitment. “We will not budge from our stand come what may,” he added. His one liner is seen in the context of the current upheaval in the alliance amid speculations of a split.
Tyagi said the three parties in the alliance have different view point on the Presidential election but this was not going to affect the alliance as well as the Government. On the candidature of Meira Kumar, he said that till a few days back most of the opposition parties had favoured fielding Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Congress had not revealed the name of former lok Sabha Speaker.
The Bihar BJP has been taking a sadistic pleasure over the bickering in the mahagathbandhan and anticipated split. Some leaders praised Nitish and said he would be welcomed back in the NDA although some BJP leaders opposed realignment with JD(U).
Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took a jibe at the Bihar BJP and said that party was suffering from contradictions. He tweeted, “Bihar BJP is on brink of break up. Its 7-8 MPs always have different stand. The NDA allies are also fed up with groupism. Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai says something else but his party MP Ashwini Choubey has divergent views.”