Nitish Kumar skips swearing-in ceremony of president Droupadi Murmu

Patna: Undercurrent of friction between the BJP and the JD(U) became more apparent on Monday when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar skipped the oath-taking ceremony of president Droupadi Murmu in the national capital.

Defending Kumar’s absence, Janata Dal-United parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha asserted that the chief minister is not bound to attend all the events.

JD(U) had supported Murmu’s candidature in the presidential poll. When Murmu visited Patna for the election campaign, Nitish Kumar had pledged his party’s support to her. Going to an oath ceremony is just a formality. It is not necessary to attend every event. Since he had a lot of committments here in Bihar, he could not make it the national capital for the oath-taking ceremony. It is not a big issue. People should avoid paying attention to it,” Kushwaha said.

Responding to the proposed visit of BJP leaders Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda to Patna for a high-level meeting of the party ahead of Lok Sabha election 2024, Kushwaha stated: “In Bihar, Nitish Kumar is the biggest leader. It hardly matters for us if any top leader of another party is coming to Bihar.”

The statement of Kushwaha on Amit Shah indicates that all is not well between BJP and JD-U in Bihar.

He sharply reacted to the statement of BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal as well. Jaiswal recently pointed out that Bihar is turning out to be new base for terrorists after security agencies have busted Phulwari Sharif suspected terror module of the Popular Front of India (PFI).

“If Sanjay Jaiswal has information about terrorist activities in Bihar, he should share the information with the chief minister or concern officers of security agencies. The way he is giving statement in publically, he has so many information about the terrorist activities. If he failed to share the information with concerned officers or the chief minister, he would face the allegation of hiding the information,” Kushwaha said.