JD(U) MP makes Nitish squirm: 'Are you jealous of Modi?'

Former spokesperson of the Janata Dal (United) Shivanand Tiwari on Tuesday further embarrassed the Janata Dal (United) and its Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who are already on the defensive following Sunday’s serial bombings in Patna, by praising the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Tiwari was eventually heckled and shouted down on at a party convention in Rajgir, Bihar. [caption id=“attachment_120018” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photograph of Shivanand Tiwari.[/caption] “Our alliance with the BJP was working fine. JD(U) broke ties with the BJP because of national politics. BJP elevated Narendra Modi, who comes from a very humble ground. He has struggled a lot to reach where he is today and for this I admire him a lot,” Tiwari said, as a somewhat shocked Sharad Yadav and chief minister Nitish Kumar looked on. “We will fight him but we should also be aware of his strengths,” he added. Tiwari also said Nitish shouldn’t be “jealous” of Modi. Tiwari reportedly also said there is no harm in “working together with a large heart”. This led to members of the JD (U) standing up and shouting him down. Faced with hecklers, Tiwari said, “I’m not afraid of speaking the truth.” The NDA and the JD (U) ended a 17-year partnership earlier this year following Nitish’s objection to Modi being selected as the PM candidate of the NDA. There was also immediate speculation on whether Tiwari was keen to join the BJP after being sidelined by other JD(U) leaders – his term as a Rajya Sabha MP is drawing to a close and he was recently removed as party spokesperson. Shivanand Tiwari, a former member of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, proposed a JD (U) and Congress alliance for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections only earlier this month. He had then claimed that Ram Manohar Lohia’s anti-Congressism platform was now irrelevant while the BJP was not a pan India party and could therefore not hope to gain a majority in 2014. Tiwari had also reportedly claimed that Modi was anti-Dalit.