Sonia book says Nitish Kumar left INDIA bloc meeting after ‘feeble excuse’, JD(U) hits back | Political Pulse News
JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said that Kumar was “the chief architect of the INDIA bloc,” adding that the Opposition alliance had “no clear objective or vision besides Narendra Modi-bashing”.
In her memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, Sonia Gandhi wrote: “In January (2024), came another setback, when one of our main allies, the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, abruptly walked out of a meeting, making a feeble excuse. It felt strange: Something was afoot. True enough, the news came: He had rejoined Modi’s NDA. It had clearly been planned. It was damaging for our alliance, at first….”
Jha told The Indian Express: “Everyone knows that it was Nitish Kumar who was instrumental in forming the INDIA bloc, and its first meeting was conducted in Patna. Later, Nitish Kumar travelled to Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Mumbai to rally support for it.”
‘Part of Congress culture’
He said, “What I have gathered is that it has become part of the culture of top Congress leaders to make frivolous comments on leaders who have invested their entire lives in the service of the country or a state.”
Jha said, “First, it was AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge who made uncharitable remarks on PM Narendra Modi, and now we see Sonia Gandhi making a frivolous comment on our leader Nitish Kumar in her memoir. It is a below-the-belt comment, to say that Nitish Kumar left the alliance for feeble reasons. It should have been appreciated that it was Nitish Kumar who laid the foundation of the Opposition alliance.”
‘Common objective just to criticise Modi’
Jha, who was in the thick of things during the formation of the INDIA bloc, said: “Nitish Kumar was not happy with the very name, INDIA, because it is the name of our country. We soon realised that the Congress and other parties were not serious about the alliance; their common objective was just to criticise Narendra Modi.”
He said it was Nitish Kumar who built trust among other parties to join the bloc. “(Sonia Gandhi) should have told (in her book) under what circumstances Nitish Kumar quit the Opposition alliance. There was no policy, idea or thinking there. It was only about their personal ambitions. We soon realised that they had no clear goal. Their only job was to flay Narendra Modi,” Jha said.
The JD(U) walked out of the Opposition alliance in January 2024 following the Mumbai meeting of the INDIA bloc. While the party never demanded it publicly, sources said it had expected the role of national convener for Nitish Kumar.
When asked about the current state of the alliance with the NDA, especially following murmurs of simmering dissent from some quarters over the BJP “not supporting JD(U) candidates” in the recent Legislative Council polls, Jha said: “We have rock-solid unity. There are no issues.”
