The disappointed Sharad Yadav is now openly giving signals of his wish to withdraw his support from JD(U) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav had earlier also expressed his resent over Nitish’s decision of breaking up the grand alliance with RJD and Congress to join hands with BJP. He felt betrayed and felt left out alleging that Nitish had not consulted him or involved him in taking the decision.
Recently Sharad again indicated signals of parting ways with Nitish Kumar, when he expressed his heartiest congratulations to Congress contender Ahmed Patel over his victory in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls.
Heartiest congratulations on your victory in Rajya Sabha election in spite of toughest hurdles. Wish you all success in your career. pic.twitter.com/ICNTmq02nY
— SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) August 9, 2017
Every vote count had become crucial for Ahmed Patel and other than 44 Congress MLAs he was expecting the support of 2 NCP MLAs and a lone JD(U) MLA. However, the votings revealed the real faces of the friends, one of the NCP lawmaker voted against Patel and also one of the 44 Congress MLA ditched him. While the vote of the JD(U) MLA was already in dicey grounds believing that after the breaking up with Congress in Bihar it will not support a Congress candidate. Though it turned out to be other way round the lone JD(U) Gujarat MLA Chhotubhai Vasava, extended his support to Ahmed Patel marking a clear win for him.
Chhotubhai Vasava said that his decision to vote for Ahmed Patel and not the BJP was in protest against party chief Nitish Kumar’s decision to dump allies Lalu Yadav and the Congress in Bihar and partner with the BJP. Following the voting of Vasava Nitish Kumar expelled JD-U’s state chief Arun Srivastava, who is known to be close to Sharad Yadav, as is Mr. Vasava from the party.
This move of Nitish has all the more deepened the already growing rift between Nitish and Sharad. Sharad Yadav’s open support for Ahmed Patel is seen as an attempt to provoke Nitish Kumar into throwing him out of the party. That will not jeopardise his membership of the Rajya Sabha; if he resigns, he will lose his seat in Parliament.