RJD Leaders Urge Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar To Sit And Solve Coalition Crisis

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders have requested Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and coalition partner Lalu Yadav to sit together to solve the crisis in the ruling coalition, but the JD(U) on Sunday said "everything is all right".

"Coalitions may see tensions and pressures but everything is all right in the Grand Alliance," said Janata Dal-United spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

Without naming Nitish Kumar, who is also JD(U) president, he said that the able leadership manage to get out of the crisis that erupted after the CBI filed a corruption case against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav - the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Yadav - and solve it.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Union Minister Ragunath Jha said: "Lalu (Yadav) and Nitish Kumar should sit together, talk to each other to end the crisis."

Another senior RJD leader and former lawmaker Shivanand Tiwari has appealed to Nitish Kumar to end the crisis. "I appeal to Nitish Kumar with folded hands to solve the crisis and save the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) from split," he said.

According to sources in the JD(U) and RJD, leaders from both parties will now attack the BJP rather than each other.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar on Sunday evening "hardly spoke" about Tejashwi Yadav, while addressing his party legislators and senior party leaders at his official residence in Patna, said party state president Vashisht Narain Singh.

"Nitish Kumar hardly spoke about Tejashwi Yadav and the ongoing crisis in the ruling alliance... He only discussed issues related to the presidential polls," a JD(U) legislator said.

Similarly, Lalu Yadav also did not say anything over the crisis while addressing his party legislators and senior party leaders at his official residence here on Sunday evening.