Sharad holds parallel meeting, exhorts people to keep Grand

Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is heading the faction opposed to party president Nitish Kumar, today held a parallel meeting to the party's national executive here and exhorted the people of Bihar to keep the Grand Alliance in the state intact "at any cost".

Kumar's decision to dump the alliance had dented the opposition's efforts to forge a unity at the national level, he said at the 'Jan Adalat' meeting hosted by his faction, adding that the alliance had to be maintained in Bihar "at any cost".

"The BJP was winning Assembly polls one after another, but its chariot was held in Bihar (in 2015), where the people gave a two-thirds majority to the alliance for five years....

The alliance has been broken, which was not a good decision at all," Yadav said.

Hitting out at Kumar, Yadav, who was recently removed by the JD(U) as its parliamentary party leader, said, "This is the party which I, along with late Chaudhary Devi Lal, had formed and nurtured...a number of people broke away from the Janata Dal and now, those in the party are trying to make me homeless."

He added that the people would decide whose course of action was right as he had not changed his "path" (principles).

Yadav claimed that it was he who had suggested to Kumar, also the Bihar chief minister, not to snap ties with the NDA in 2013.

"I do not care who is with him (Kumar) and who is not. I will continue to fight for the people's cause and programme," he said.

The meeting, which was meant to be a show of strength of the Yadav-led JD(U) faction, was not attended by any prominent leader or state-level office-bearer of the party.

Even the district unit chiefs of the party were absent.

Only a few former Bihar ministers, ex-MLCs and ex-MPs, many of whom are not very known or active in politics, were present.

Prominent among those who attended the meet included JD (U) Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari, former MP Arjun Rai, former minister Parveen Amanullah, former national general secretary Arun Srivastava and former minister Ramai Ram, who chaired it.

Srivastava, who was suspended by the party after the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, said he would not resign from the JD(U).

"Those willing to join hands with the BJP should in fact resign from the party," he added.

Srivastava claimed that 14 state unit chiefs of the party and other office-bearers attended Yadav's programme.

Despite Yadav's instructions not to name any individual or organisation, every speaker came down heavily on Kumar for "not taking anyone into confidence" regarding his decision to snap ties with the Grand Alliance, comprising the Congress and the RJD.

Ansari claimed that the decision to change the political course in Bihar by coming out of the alliance would prove to be "disastrous" for the state.

He said after the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, Kumar was being seen as an "alternative", who could have become the prime minister in the future.

"But unfortunately, after achieving such a big stature, he has suddenly become too small," Ansari said and exhorted the people to unite under Yadav's leadership "to save the country".

The JD(U) national executive committee meeting was held at the official residence of Kumar. The national council meeting and an open session of the party were held at the Rabindra Bhawan here.

After the national executive meet, speaking to reporters, JD(U) principal general secretary K C Tyagi hinted that the party might take action against Yadav, but would wait till August 27, when a massive RJD rally is scheduled to be held at the state capital here.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)