Acrimonious exchanges between JD(U) and RJD

After days of logjam over a tie up between Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, acrimony surfaced today between the two regional parties marked with war of words between their leaders.
Reflecting continued discomfort within the RJD over declaring Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, RJD vice president Raghubansh Prasad Singh today said there was no need to declare Kumar as a CM nominee.
"There are so many personalities in RJD who can become a good chief minister," Singh, a former Union Minister and close associate of party president Lalu Prasad, said.

Singh has been expressing discomfort over Kumar's candidature as a CM nominee for some time now.
Media reports suggest RJD's opposition to Nitish Kumar's candidature was due to its apprehension of losing the crucial Yadav votes as a majority of the backward Yadav caste constituting of about 14 per cent of the state's population, accuses Kumar of working against their interests during the NDA rule.
The JD(U), in a strong retort to the senior RJD leader's statement against Kumar, alleged him of helping BJP.

"By making such assertions, Singh and others seem to be on the BJP pay roll and making statements to benefit the BJP," state minister Shyam Rajak told PTI.

Though the RJD chief was in favour of joining hands with the JD(U) to defeat the BJP, but "by making such statements these leaders are only creating roadblocks," Rajak, a close confidante of Nitish Kumar, said.
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav refused to speak on assertions of Lalu Prasad or Singh over the continued logjam and told reporters in Madhepura that statements and counter statements by leaders of the two parties were complicating the issue.
The leadership of Nitish Kumar in the alliance also appears to be a bone of contention between JD(U) and RJD.
The Congress, in the mean time, has manifested its preference for Nitish Kumar.

Bihar Congress president Ashok Choudhary after meeting party president Sonia Gandhi had yesterday said Nitish Kumar has proved to be a good CM and putting forward his face in the elections would help the anti-BJP grouping.