Free to go: Nitish Kumar slams Pavan Varma who questioned JD(U)-BJP tie up for Delhi polls

Two days after former Rajya Sabha member Pawan Verma questioned his party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his alliance with the BJP for Delhi polls, Nitish hit back at his aide. “Verma is free to leave the JD (U) and join whichever party he wants to join. My best wishes are with him,” Nitish, red-faced over Verma’s letter, said here on Thursday.

Nitish made this announcement while showing his displeasure over Verma’s letter on Tuesday in which the former JD (U) MP had questioned Nitish on his stand on CAA, besides the rational behind aligning with the BJP in Delhi elections.

“On more than one occasion, you have expressed your apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine. If these are your real views, 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,” said Verma in his letter to Nitish.

On Thursday, Nitish bluntly said if there was any issue for discussion, he (Verma) should have discussed it with me or raised the matter in the party forum. “But this is not the way. There is no confusion in my party. The JD (U) won’t backtrack on the issue (of supporting CAA). If somebody has made up his mind to leave the JD (U), he is free to do so,” said Nitish, who has already announced in the Assembly that there will be no NRC in Bihar.

However, JD (U) vice-president Prahant Kishor and former Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Verma, of late, had been targeting BJP and Nitish on these contentious issues through their tweets. “Don’t give much importance to these tweets,” said Nitish, in a subtle warning to Kishor too.

Nitish was speaking to media after paying tributes to Netaji Subash Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary.