The war of words between Prashant Kishore and Lalu Prasad’s family is getting more intense with every passing day. In an interview with News18 Network Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) senior leader and Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi said Prashant Kishor, after being rejected by Lalu for a merger, had made a similar proposal to the Congress.
“He met me several times, even my father and when we refused him, his offer was sent to the Congress. I won’t say that this proposal directly went to Rahul Gandhi, it might be that it reached other senior leaders as per Kishor’s approach,” he said.
Elaborating on what the offer was, he said, “A proposal was made to convince Lalu ji. After that Nitish Kumar would resign. RJD and Congress were supposed to support him in trust vote and exactly after 10 days he would merge with Congress.”
Tejashwi also called out Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and challenged him to respond to the allegations. “Prashant Kishor is not at fault. It is Nitish Kumar who is making him do all this. He should come out and respond to all of this," he said.
Explaining why Prasad rejected Kishor’s proposal, he said, “We had to reject it because we cannot have a place for someone who has disrespected the mandate of the people.”
With less than a week to go for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor faced similar allegations from former Bihar chief minister and Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi on Friday.
In an interview to News18, Rabri Devi had alleged that Nitish Kumar sent Prashant Kishor to meet Lalu five times in attempts to reunite the two parties. She further claimed that Kishor told Lalu to declare a PM face for the Lok Sabha polls.
“Prashant Kishor had visited our residence five times. I even threw him out of the house. He is a liar. He told Lalu ji that Nitish Kumar has sent him to form a merger between the two parties… but we protested, we don’t trust Nitish,” said Rabri Devi. Kishor, on his part, has denied the claims.
The feud started after Lalu, in his recently released book Gopalganj to Raisina, wrote: “Kishor seemed to indicate that if I (Lalu) were to assure in writing my party's support to the JD(U), the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin Mahagathbandhan.” Kishor had last week dismissed the claim as "bogus" and said Nitish Kumar had sent no feelers through him for Bihar chief minister's return to "Mahagathbandhan”.
Nitish Kumar had severed his ties with the Grand Alliance in July 2017, less than two years after his partnership with arch-rival Lalu and the Congress succeeded in delivering a crushing defeat to the BJP-led NDA in the assembly polls.
Comments
0 comment