Tyagi roots for Nitish, blames Manjhi for political imbroglio
Patna: Blaming Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi for the political imbro-glio in the party, JD(U) National General Secretary K C Tyagi on Friday said former CM Nitish Kumar “will rescue the boat that is being sunk by Manjhi”.
“Enough is enough now. Nitish Kumar will rescue the boat of JD(U) that is being sunk by Manjhi. Our National President Sharad Yadav is keeping a close watch on the entire scenario enveloping the party,” Tyagi told reporters while coming out of Kumar’s residence, where he had gone to attend a meeting of SC, Mahadalit and ST cells of the party.
Tyagi’s comments are being seen as an indication that Kumar, who had relinquished his post in May 2014 after the dismal performance by JD(U) in the Lok Sabha elections, will be re-elected the leader of legislature party at the meeting of MLAs and MLCs convened by Yadav on Saturday replacing Manjhi as the Chief Minister.
“There is no other leader of the stature of Kumar in the country. Several parties suffered heavy losses in the general election, but only Kumar showed the moral courage to resign from his position,” Tyagi said. “Manjhi had been nominated a Chief Minister only till November. He had neither been given the mandate by the public, nor did the legislature party elect him,” he added.
Elaborating on the way the entire event unfolded since Thursday, Tyagi charged Manjhi of “going back on his word” regarding the JD(U) legislature party meeting. Manjhi had earlier today termed the proposed meeting of the JD(U) Legislature Party on Saturday as “unauthorised” and has instead called a Legislature Party meeting in his capacity as Leader of the House on February 20.
Tyagi said Sharad Yadav had gone for lunch at the Chief Minister’s official residence on Thursday, where it was Manjhi who suggested to him during their discussion that the legislature party meeting should be convened. “The legislature party meeting was convened at Manjhi’s request and scheduled for February 7, but now he is calling it unauthorised and saying he will not attend it,” Tyagi added.
Heading for a showdown with the JD(U) leadership, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday termed the proposed mee-ting of the JD(U) Legislature Party on Saturday as “unauthorised” and has instead calling a Legislature Party meeting in his capacity as Leader of the House on February 20. Manjhi has called a meeting of JD(U) Legislature Party at his official residence at 7 PM on February 20, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said today. Manjhi has described the JD(U) Legislature Party meeting called by party President Sharad Yadav on February 7 as “unauthorised”.
“The right to call Legislature Party meeting rests with leader of the Legislature party (Chief Minister). The notice of the meeting called on February 7 is not an authorised one,” Manjhi had said in a statement late last night. JD(U) General Secretary K C Tyagi described the Legislature Party meeting called by the party Presi-dent as “valid”.
According to JD(U) constitution, under Rule 21, the party the President has the power to call a meeting of Legislature Party, Tyagi told reporters. Meanwhile, BJP said it was keeping a “wait and watch” approach over the situation.
“We are keeping a watch over the situation and will take a decision at right time…all options are open for BJP,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told PTI in reply to a question if BJP would extend support to Manjhi in case he is sacked by his own party.(PTI)