Prashant Kishor Can Leave JDU If He Wants, Inducted Him On Amit Shah’s Recommendation: Nitish Kumar

“The EVM button will be pressed with love on February 8. Jod ka jhatka dhire se lagna chahiye (the great shock should feel like a mild current) so that brotherhood and harmony is not endangered,' Prashant Kishor tweeted earlier.

author-image
Victor Dasgupta
Updated On
New Update
Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ( Photo Credit : PTI)

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday took to stern stand on JDU vice president Prashant Kishor who recently took a dig at Union home minister Amit Shah over the latter’s appeal to people to “press the EVM button in anger” in the ensuing Delhi elections in view of anti-CAA protests in the country. Nitish Kumar, while responding on Kishor’s tweet, said one can stay in the party (JD-U) till he (Kishor) wants or else can go if he wants.

Revealing Kishor’s inroad to JD(U), Nitish Kumar said, "Do you know how did he join the party? Amit Shah asked me to induct him.” Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who is presently working for Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) earlier took to Twitter and wrote. “The EVM button will be pressed with love on February 8. Jod ka jhatka dhire se lagna chahiye (the great shock should feel like a mild current) so that brotherhood and harmony is not endangered."

Kishor’s tweet was in reference to a remark made by Shah during an election rally in Delhi on Sunday. “When you press the button (on the voting machine) on February 8, do so with such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh…Your vote to the BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh,” Shah was quoted as saying by PTI while campaigning for the BJP candidate in Babarpur constituency of Delhi.

JD(U)'s Pawan Varma Speaks Of Nitish's 'Private Apprehensions' About BJP

JD(U) leader Pavan Varma on Tuesday sought ideological clarity from party president Nitish Kumar over aligning with the BJP in the Delhi elections, referring to the Bihar chief minister’s “private apprehensions” on how the saffron party is leading the country.  In remarks that may embarrass Kumar, Varma claimed in a letter to him that despite his alliance with the BJP in 2017, his “private apprehensions” regarding the party and how it was leading India into a “dangerous space” did not change.

“I remember your confessing to me in private how the current leadership in the BJP party has humiliated you. You maintained, on more than one occasion, that the BJP is leading India into a ‘dangerous space,” the former Rajya Sabha member and JD(U) general secretary wrote.

In the letter, which he shared on social media, Varma said, “It was your personal view, as conveyed to me, that the BJP is destroying institutions, and that there is a need for democratic and socialist forces within the country to regroup, a task for which you actually assigned a senior party official.”

The JD(U) or its president have not reacted to Varma’s claims and swipe at Kumar. Varma has been a frequent critic of the Modi government’s policies and had asked his party to stand against its citizenship measures. The JD(U)’s decision to broaden its alliance outside and join hands with the BJP for the Delhi polls has left him “deeply perplexed”, Varma said, adding that he looked to Kumar for ideological clarity.

“On more than one occasion, you have expressed your grave apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine, he said in his letter to the Bihar chief minister.

RELATED Video

BJP aap Nitish Kumar JDU Bihar Prashant Kishor