Despite talks of rift, JD(U) says Nitish Kumar will attend RJD rally in August if invited

Patna: Crushing rumours that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not attend RJD’s proposed rally in Patna next month, the JD(U) on Monday said its national president would attend the rally if he got an invitation. “We will definitely participate in the rally if RJD extends its invitation to our leader Nitish Kumar,” Bihar JD(U) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh told reporters in Patna. [caption id=“attachment_3455098” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] Singh was addressing the media at the end of a day-long state executive meeting of the party. A section in the media had reported that the JD(U) would not participate in the RJD’s “BJP hatao, desh bachao” rally, scheduled to be held on 27 August in Patna. The JD(U) and the RJD along with the Congress are partners in the ruling grand alliance in the state. The differences between the two major partners of the alliance surfaced ever since the JD(U) unilaterally announced its support to former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, NDA’s presidential nominee, without waiting for the united candidate of the Opposition. Singh asserted, “When we (JD-U) were part of NDA, we had supported UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee. Now we have supported Ram Nath Kovind as an individual and not extended its (JD-U’s) support to BJP… We had also supported demonetisation. We are moving on our own agenda. We are not ‘Pichhlaggu’ (riding piggyback).” Singh, who was accompanied by party’s spokesmen Ajay Alok, Rajiv Ranjan, Niraj Kumar, said he did not want to go into what senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had spoken about his leader.