Congress extends olive branch to Nitish Kumar

Piqued over the internecine war going on within the Lalu Prasad’s family, the Congress party on Tuesday extended an olive branch to Nitish urging him to return to the Grand Alliance at the earliest.

“At present, there is no substitute to Nitish Kumar in Bihar. The leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav may be an emerging leader but as of now, Nitish remains unmatched. The earlier he deserts NDA and joins the Grand Alliance, the better it will be for the Mahagatbandhan,” said senior Congress legislator Munna Tiwary.

He is the fourth Congress MLA from Bihar who has urged party president Rahul Gandhi to intervene and wean away Nitish from the NDA fold. “Such is the stature of Nitish that he would be an asset for the Grand Alliance, and will play a decisive role in our fight against the BJP in 2019,” argued two senior Congress legislators Sudarshan and Shakeel Ahmad Khan.

Acting president of Bihar Congress Kaukab Quadri, who earlier had asked the party leaders not to air their political views in public, on Tuesday showered praise on Nitish and said the Bihar Chief Minister was an able and capable leader but was in bad company (read BJP-led NDA).

NO ENTRY

The new political development comes on a day when Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap put up a notice of ‘No entry to Nitish Chacha’ at Rabri Devi’s residence.

Notwithstanding Tej Pratap’s theatrics, Kaukab had earlier cautioned the RJD to mind its language when a senior RJD functionary used uncharitable language for Bihar Congress leaders.

The Congress is already peeved over the infighting within the family of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi where their two sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi are vying with each other in their “war for supremacy”. Tej had posted one such message on Monday evening and desired to quit politics if he was overlooked any more. But within three hours he deleted his post and charged the BJP/RSS with hacking his facebook account.