Janata Dal (United) leader M.P. Veerendrakumar resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, saying he did not agree with his party chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Mr. Veerendrakumar announced his resignation after handing in his papers to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.
“Legally I am in the Rajya Sabha as a member of Nitish Kumar’s party. I don’t agree with his stand dumping the Mahagathbandhan and aligning with the Sangh Parivar and the BJP,” he said in a press conference here. The Kerala unit of the party could not toe the Sangh Parivar line as had been done by the Nitish Kumar faction, he said. Mr. Nitish Kumar had parted ways with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar and joined the NDA in July.
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Mr. Veerendrakumar’s resignation comes against the backdrop of the State unit of the party reportedly planning to shift its loyalties to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) from the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
He said the UDF had offered him the Rajya Sabha seat as at that time the State unit of his party was with the Socialist Janata (Democratic), which was part of the UDF.
Later the SJ(D) merged with the JD(U), whose main agenda then was to fight the politics of the Sangh Parivar. However, now the situation had changed, he added.
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The future course would be decided within 10 days and the party was weighing whether to float a new party or revive the SJ(D), Mr. Veerendrakumar added.