Acrimony rose on Wednesday between the constituents of the Janata Parivar as Janata Dal (United) minister Shyam Rajak accused senior members of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of being “on the payroll of the BJP”.

Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar seemed to be working on Plan B.

There has been no meeting between Lalu and Nitish although they are next-door neighbours in Patna. However, Lalu’s close confidant and RJD Legislative Council member Bhola Yadav met the Chief Minister this afternoon.

State minister Shyam Rajak, meanwhile, accused the RJD, especially its prominent leader and former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, of promoting the BJP’s agenda.

Singh was clearly upset about the allegations although he himself has been at the forefront of opposing Nitish’s projection as the CM candidate of the alliance.

“Leadership and other issues can be sorted out only when the prominent leaders of the two parties talk over them,” he said.

The reason for Singh and other RJD members to sound a little subdued this afternoon is the open backing Nitish has received from other alliance partners, especially the Congress. Lalu is reportedly trying to get in touch with Congress president Sonia Gandhi after her party made its preference for Nitish public. However, he has apparently not succeeded so far. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh went to the extent of making a public appeal to Sonia to intervene to hammer out a solution and give shape to the anti-BJP alliance in Bihar.

Meanwhile, Nitish has clearly started working on the premise that a merger or even a seat-sharing alliance may not work out with Lalu.

With the Congress backing him, Nitish has started meeting party legislators and MPs to get their feedback about the situation. He interacted with MLAs, MPs and other party leaders from three districts in Bihar — West Champaran, East Champaran and Bagha.

Getting feedback

He is scheduled to have interactions in the second session in the evening with MLAs, MPs and other leaders of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Sheohar, JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said.

The exercise would continue till June 17, he said. Those present said these interactions seem to be aimed at gathering information about a situation without the RJD. The message from the CM seemed to be clear — there would be no bending to the chorus from the RJD against Nitish’s candidature as CM.

JD(U) president Basistha Narayan Singh has already made it clear that for his party, no name other than Nitish is acceptable for the CM post. MLAs who met their leader today echoed the view.

Legislator from Madhuban in East Champaran district Shivji Rai said that for him and his colleagues, Nitish is the only leader under whose leadership they will fight the polls. Former MLA Awnish Kumar too repeated the statement.

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