Janata Dal-United (JDU) Parliamentary Party Chairman and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha on Friday said that his party leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not bother to call him in the last two years.
Talking to media persons here, Kushwaha, however, did not talk about his future plan and said that he was still ready to talk to Chief Minister Kumar on any party related issues.
“The CM did not bother to call me even once during the last two years. It was me who called him to talk about party affairs. You can check it up from his call records,” he said.
Kushwaha, while questioning a few select politicians who surround Chief Minister Kumar, said that the CM follows the advice of “ these politicians” who were never with him in his time of struggle.
These “favourite” politicians are “party hopers” and not at all even remotely connected with socialist movement,” said Kushwaha.
“During my last one-on-one meeting with Nitish ji in the third week of last December, I had categorically told him about the party’s decline. We must do something concrete in order to save it from further decline,” he said.
“In 2020 assembly polls, the party badly performed which has relegated it to meagre 43 seats,” he said, adding that we should meet and discuss with senior party leaders but till date he has not done anything in this regard.
“It was Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who had first initiated it against me through the media. In fact, I was in AIIMS-Delhi for a check-up. He had conveyed his message through the media that he should meet me if he has any issues,” Kushwaha said.
Kushwaha is determined to celebrate the birth anniversary of late Babu Jagdeo Prasad, founder of the Shoshit Samaj Dal and popularly known as Lenin of Bihar, on February 2 in Patna despite opposition from some party leaders. This function is being held by a social organisation called Jyotiba Phule Samata Sangathan, he said.
Reacting to Kushwaha’s statement, JDU state unit president Umesh Kushwaha said that since he has merged his party in the JDU, why is he organising a function in the name of another organisation. When asked about any action against Kushwaha, he said that he should himself tender his resignation.
Earlier Chief Minister Kumar said that he should discuss these matters inside the party and not through tweets. “We had welcomed him whenever he joined us but all these issues should not be discussed in public domain,” he told the media after the Republic Day function.
Meanwhile, JDU has distanced itself with the ongoing Bharat Jodi Yatra (BJY). Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has invited all major opposition leaders including Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish Kumar Mayawati and MK Stalin to attend the closing ceremony of the BJY at Srinagar on January 30.
Chief Minister Kumar is busy with his ‘Samadhan Yatra’ in various parts of Bihar while JDU president Rajiv Ranjan Singh has already expressed his unwillingness to attend it. In a letter to Kharge, Singh said that he will be in Nagaland the same day to inaugurate the ‘Abhiyan Yatra.’