Kushwaha Blasts Nitish Following his Expulsion
Patna: Aug. 22, 2007
Janata Dal (U) leader Upendra Kushwaha who was expelled on Tuesday by the party leadership for indulging in 'anti-party activities', blasted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for 'surrendering to the power brokers and sycophants' to promote a 'particular community' and shunting those who helped him attain power in the state in the first place.
Suspended from the party for six years, Kushwaha who had launched a virtual one-man jihad against his own party leadership also lashed out at party state president Rajiv Ranjan Singh for calling him 'the leader of the opposition'. "I may have been coroneted as the leader of the opposition but at least I helped Nitish Kumar become the leader of the ruling party, he said.
"Agreed I lost in the last elections but is that something that would make me a pariah in my own party? Even Nitish and party president Sharad Yadav have lost elections in the past so why my defeat was different from them?" asked Kushwaha citing example of Ramashraya Prasad who was made a minister in the Nitish government in spite of the fact that he also lost the last election.
Also taking a dig at the JD-U national spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari, Kushwaha said the same man was openly denigrating and criticizing Nitish Kumar till the day polls opened in Bihar. "Today he is one of the most powerful men in the party while those who stood by Nitish Kumar during the bad days are now systematically being targeted and eliminated from the party," he said.
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