You are free to leave JD(U): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snubs Pavan Varma over CAA

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday slammed his party colleague Pavan Varma for raising question over his decision to join hands with the BJP for Delhi Assembly election and the party's stand on Citizenship Amendment Act.

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Thursday slammed his party colleague Pavan Varma for publicly calling him out on his decision to join hands with the BJP for Delhi Assembly election and the party's stand on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Talking to media, Kumar said that Varma's has not expressed his displeasure in the correct manner and he should have not revealed private conversations in public. The Bihar chief minister added that he respects Varma and if he wants to quit JD(U) to join some other party, he is free to do so.

“This is not the way to express your displeasure... he [Varma] says I told him certain things, should I tell you what he said to me? I respect him... If he want to go to some other party that is his decision... he has my blessings,” Kumar said.

On Wednesday (January 22), Varma wrote an open letter raising questions over the JDU's alliance with the BJP for Delhi Assembly poll 2020, saying Kumar's decision has left him “deeply perplexed”.

Varma said he was “asking him how the JD(U) has formed an alliance with the BJP for the Delhi elections, given his own views on the BJP, and the massive national outrage against the divisive CAA-NPR-NRC scheme. On more than one occasion, you have expressed your grave apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine," Varma said in the letter.

He added, “Even after you changed tracks and aligned again with the BJP in 2017, your private apprehensions regarding the BJP did not change. For instance, I remember your confessing to me in private how the current BJP leadership has humiliated you. You maintained, on more than one occasion, that the BJP is leading India into a ‘dangerous space’.”

Varma then asked if these were the “real views” of Bihar CM and said, “I fail to understand how the JD(U) is now extending its alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar, when even long-standing allies of the BJP, like the Akali Dal, have refused to do so”.

Varma asserted on the “urgent need” for the JDU to “harmonise what the party constitution says, what the leader of the party feels in private and what actions the party takes in public”.

It is to be noted that the JDU is contesting on two out of 70 seats in Delhi Assembly and BJP's decision to give two seats to JD(U) is seen by an attempt by the party to strengthen its alliance with JD(U).