Nitish to attend RJD's 'BJP hatao, desh bachao' rally if he gets an invite, says JDU

NEW DELHI: After reports surfaced that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not attend RJD's anti-BJP rally in Patna next month, the JD(U) on Sunday retracted and 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 here. Singh was addressing the media at the end of a day-long state executive meeting of the party. The rift between Bihar's ruling allies JD(U) and RJD widened with media reported that the JD(U) would not participate in the RJD's "BJP hatao, desh bachao" rally, scheduled to be held on August 27 in Patna. 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. Though support to Kovind was highly criticized by Lalu and various other opposition parties, Nitish didn’t budge from his decision and stood by BJP’s candidate Kovind. 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 (JDU'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. The JD-U and RJD along with the Congress are part of the ruling Grand Alliance in the state. Lalu Prasad has said the the anti BJP rally would be attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Left parties.