JD-U announces new chief, hits out at BJP over MLA poaching, love jihad

Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Sunday expressed its unhappiness over the Arunachal Pradesh incident where six of its MLAs joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying it was against the coalition’s understanding.

“The act of the BJP is against the spirit of the coalition pact. Its leaders should have learnt from the coalition in Bihar where we (JD-U and BJP) are in power for 15 years and we did not attempt anything like this. The act of the BJP has created huge anger among our top leadership in the party and they have openly condemned the move of saffron party,” party’s national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said.

“The coalition pact was started in 1968 during Ram Manohar Lohia and it was flourished during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when 24 parties and Omar Abdullah, Mamata Banerjee, and other leaders were part of the coalition. There was no conflict like this happening that time. The current BJP regime has not worked in the spirit of coalition in Arunachal Pradesh. It is highly unacceptable,” he said.

The party also announced that R.C.P. Singh would be the party’s new national chief.

“During the two days Executive Committee meeting in Patna, (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar himself expressed his desire to step down from the post of national president of the party. He has also projected Rajya Sabha member R.C.P. Singh for the post and his proposal was unanimously accepted by all party leaders and members,” Tyagi said.

In a clear-cut message to BJP, Tyagi said: “Nitish Kumar further expressed his view to participate in upcoming elections in other states of the country including West Bengal. In next two days, the party will announce seats on which it would contest in West Bengal. JD-U will contest the Bengal election with full strength and Nitish Kumar will campaign for the party.”

The JD-U also made a sharp attack on BJP’s policies like the laws against “love jihad”.

“Making a law on ‘Love Jihad’ amounts to creating hatred in the country. JD-U condemns such law and will never implement them in Bihar,” Tyagi said.

“Any person belonging to any caste or community has a complete constitutional right to get married… Harassing a person on the name of Love Jihad is condemnable and dangerous for society,” he added.