JOIN USThe Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to its three outgoing Rajya Sabha members asking them to formally inform the party whether they would contest Lok Sabha elections as suggested by the high command or not.
The three Upper House MPs are Shivanand Tiwary, N K Singh and Sabir Ali. All the three were reported to be sulking as none of them were re-nominated for the Rajya Sabha.
Instead, the trio was asked by the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to contest Lok Sabha elections from Buxar, Banka and Sheohar respectively.
Tiwary, who till recently was in the good books of Nitish and was supposed to be one of his key aides since Samata Party days, is now believed to have outlived his utility and, therefore, marginalised. Moreover, his ‘frank’ statement during Rajgir conclave that “the JD-U does not have even 40 competent candidates to contest all the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar” has made him fall out of Nitish’s favour. “How can I think of contesting the Lok Sabha elections from his (Kumar's) side?" Tiwary said in a letter written to Bihar JD-U chief Bashistha Narayan Singh on Wednesday night.” I know very well that Nitish is asking me to contest the Lok Sabha elections not for my victory, but to get me defeated," he said.