Both leaders congratulate Bihar CM for being successful in his power pursuits
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday expelled two senior most leaders — Prashant Kishor and Pavan K Varma — from the Janata Dal (United) for accusing him of committing “ideological betrayal” by supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and aligning with the BJP for the Delhi Assembly elections.
Kumar took the extreme step after Kishor on Tuesday launched a vehement attack on him tweeting, “Nitish what a fall for you to lie about how and why you made me join JD(U)!! Poor attempt on your part to try and make my colour same as yours!” He was responding to Kumar’s claim that he inducted Kishor on Amit Shah suggestion.
Though the immediate cause for the expulsion of Kishor and Varma is seen as their objection to CAA and Delhi poll truck with the BJP, observers point to Kumar’s anger over their making public a series of behind-the-curtain political moves as the main reason for showing them doors.
The relation between Kishor and Kumar were apparently also strained ever sine the former took the responsibility of managing the Assembly election of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. The TMC and the BJP share a bitter relation and it was becoming untenable for the JD(U) leadership to justify how could one of their senior leaders be managing the poll campaign of Mamata.
In a statement, party general secretary KC Tyagi said, “As both the party leaders have been broken the party discipline, they are being expelled from the primary membership of the party.”
Kishor had joined the JD(U) in September 2018. He was also made the vice president of the party. While Varma is a former Rajya Sabha member of the JD(U).
Soon after their expulsion from the JD(U), both the dissenting leaders took a dig at Kumar by “congratulating” him for being successful in his power pursuits by compromising “ideology”. Kishor offered Kumar his best wishes to “retain” the chief ministership of Bihar.
In a tweet minutes after the JD(U) suspended Kishor, he said, “Thank you Nitish. My best wishes to you to retain the chair of Chief Minister of Bihar. God bless you.” Varma, after being expelled from the JD(U), too gave left-handed complements to Kumar. “I congratulate Nitishji for removing all the obstacles and impediments from his path in his pursuit of short term political gain. This pursuit is clearly now completely without any
fidelity or loyalty to ideology”, he said.
The election strategist had a couple of days ago sought to embarrass Sushil Modi by sharing an old video clip wherein, as the then leader of Opposition, he had spoken harshly about the Chief Minister.
Kishor had raked up the episode by way of a riposte to Sushil, who had indirectly chided him for troubling Kumar by repeatedly violating his own party’s line.
Both Kishor and Varma came from apolitical background. Kishor made a name as a professional poll strategist after his involvement in Narendra Modi’s successful campaign as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
He was also seen as a key force in sealing Kumar’s alliance with the RJD in 2015 and then with the BJP
in 2017 before joining the JD(U) and being made its vice president.
Varma, a former diplomat, was sent to Rajya Sabha by the party as Kumar felt that he could be useful as an articulate voice in the national Capital.
Their expulsion from the party will be seen as a victory for its seasoned hands like Lalan Singh and RCP Singh who had not taken kindly to the rise of Kishor in the party and believed that his and Varma’s outspoken views ill- served its interests.