No offer to Prashant Kishor, he is a BJP agent: JD (U)

Days after a meeting between Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and election strategist Prashant Kishor, the Janata Dal-United has slammed the door for the former JD (U) vice president.

JD (U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said on Saturday that there is no offer from the JD (U) for Kishor to join the party and alleged that he is a businessman and an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) .

“He is a businessman and does marketing to grow his business. No offer was given to him (to join the JD-U). He himself wished to meet the CM.,” said Lalan Singh on Saturday.

A recent meeting of Kishor with chief minister Nitish Kumar sparked rumours of his return to the JD (U). Kishor on Thursday said that he told the chief minister about the failure of prohibition and suggested a review of it.

The meeting took place at the behest of Pavan Varma, a former party MP-cum-diplomat, who also recently resigned from the TMC and met chief minister Kumar. Both Kishor and Varma were suspended from the JD (U) in 2020.

Lalan Singh caimed that Nitish Kumar had told Kishor to meet the JD(U) national president (Lalan Singh) when Kishor expressed his desire (to join the JD-U) for the first time.

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“Bihar CM (Nitish Kumar) ultimately told him to meet the party’s national president. We talked for one-and-a-half hours in Delhi and told him to work within the party discipline and that everyone should accept the party’s decision irrespective of difference of opinions. If you agree to these two conditions, then you can work inside the party. He agreed,” said the JD (U) president.

Singh said that a time of 4pm was set for him to meet the chief minister. “But 2 hours before that, he told the media that he’s called that he won’t go, CM will wait. This is all a part of marketing,” he said.

Singh alleged that PK, as he is known, was working as an agent of the BJP. “One of them (R C P Singh) was caught in magisterial checking. Now the BJP is looking for new people. Now the BJP does not want to develop its party on the basis of mass base. It wants to develop the party under conspiracy,” he said while citing the example of defection engineered at Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, etc.

Singh also denied that Kumar was going to contest Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. “Elections are 20 months away. We respect the sentiments of people,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Prashant Kishor and the BJP.