JD (U) split wide open: Sharad faction claims support of 14 state units

New Delhi, August 13 : Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is set to present his faction as the “real” party claiming that many of its state units are with him while the support for party president Nitish Kumar is confined to Bihar.The Yadav-led faction, which includes two Rajya Sabha MPs and some national office-bearers, has armed itself with letters of support from 14 state unit presidents, Arun Shrivastava, a close aide of Yadav said. Kumar recently removed Yadav from the post of party’s general secretary.
Read: JD-U ousts Sharad as leader in RS, Shah invites Nitish to NDA
To counter Kumar’s assertion that the JD(U) is recognised only in Bihar—a point made to debunk claims of support from other state units by the Yadav faction—Shrivastava claimed the party always had a national footprint.
He said it was Yadav who headed the party before Kumar had merged his Samata Party with it.
“We will not leave the party. Nitish Kumar himself says that the party does not exist outside Bihar. Then he should form a new party for Bihar. He should not try to capture the JD(U) which always had a national presence,” he told PTI.The ‘Janata Parivar’, a reference to various parties with socialist ethos, has a history of mergers and splits.