Nitish Kumar Hits Back at Pavan Varma, Says 'You Can Join Any Party You Like'

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has hit back at disgruntled JDU leader Pavan Varma for questioning his stand over extending alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar and said ‘he can go and join any party he likes, my best wishes.’ The JDU chief also expressed strong displeasure over Varma, a national general secretary of the party, sharing on the social media a letter wherein he had made mention of the chief minister having expressed apprehensions ‘in private’ about the BJP’s ‘divisive’ agenda.

“He is a learned man for whom I have a lot of respect even if he may not have similar sentiments for me. But is it proper to share such things in public and not on a party forum? What if I start sharing what he said to me in public?”, Nitish Kumar told reporters here.

Earlier, in a strongly-worded two-page letter, Varma said he was ‘perplexed by the party's tie-up with the BJP for the Delhi assembly polls, accusing the saffron party of having “embarked on a massive, socially divisive agenda.”

#WATCH Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on JDU leader Pawan Verma's letter to him on CAA&NRC: If anyone has any issues then the person can discuss it within party or at party meetings, but such kind of public statements are surprising. He can go and join any party he likes, my best wishes. pic.twitter.com/qFXgVSWfKu

— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2020

JDU having a tie-up with the BJP outside Bihar for the first time

This is for the first time that the JDU headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is having a tie-up with the BJP outside Bihar. The BJP had announced on Monday that it will spare two seats for the JDU in Delhi and one for another NDA partner— the LJP headed by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Both the JDU and the LJP had ploughed the lonely furrow in the recent assembly polls in Jharkhand, where the saffron party lost power to the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance. “On more than one occasion, you have expressed your apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine. In my first meeting with you in Patna in August 2012, even before I had resigned from the IFS, you had spoken to me at length and with conviction on why Narendra Modi and his policies are inimical for the country,” Varma, one of the most articulate spokespersons of a political party, said.

With PTI Inputs