By IANS,
Patna : Infighting in Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has deepened with state party chief Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh publicly raising the banner of revolt against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “autocratic style” of runing the party and the government.
“There is no democracy in the party. Every decision is taken in an autocratic style. But I simply stand for certain principles like democracy in the party,” Lalan Singh said soon after he arrived in Patna Saturday amid a strong rumour that he had offered to quit.
He said though he headed the state JD-U unit, he invariably came to know about the party’s decisions from newspaper reports.
Singh said he was stunned that unilateral decisions were taken in the party without consulting anyone. He was angry over the reinduction of former Rashtriya Samata Party leader Upendra Kushwaha into the JD-U.
Till a few months ago, Singh was considered the closest confidant of Nitish Kumar. In the last two months, however, differences between the duo.
Singh is not alone in publicly targeting Nitish Kumar’s style of running the party and government. Others like Prabhunath Singh and Sambhu Saran Srivastava have also rebelled against the chief minister.
Last October, the JD-U suspended Jagdish Sharma, Puranmasi Ram and Ejaz Ali – all parliamentarians – after they rebelled against Nitish Kumar.