Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Shivanand Tiwari’s attempt to pitch Tejashwi Yadav as Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial candidate for 2025 assembly elections went awry on Wednesday as he ended up advising the incumbent CM Nitish Kumar to open “ashram” for providing political training. Upendra Kushwaha, president of JD(U)’s national parliamentary board, retorted saying Nitish Kumar was not going to open the ashram as “crores of countrymen…want Nitish ji to continue serving them…while staying at the peak of power.”
“I think if you need to, you should look for some other ashram,” Kushwaha said in a tweet in Hindi.
Addressing party workers at the RJD state council meeting in Patna, Tiwari advised Nitish Kumar to open an ashram to provide political training and handover chief ministerial post to Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in 2025.
“Long ago, Nitish Kumar had said that he will open the ashram and provide political training. I will remind him to open that ashram after making Tejashwi the chief minister in 2025. After that, I will also join you in the ashram and train the political workers there.”
The meeting was attended by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and other senior party leaders.
Tiwari later clarified that he made the remark in a jovial manner to make case for Tejashwi Yadav as Bihar’s chief minister in 2025.
“CM Nitish Kumar’s statement was graceful as he said that he doesn’t have any desire and wants to promote youth. So I said to make Tejashwi Yadav CM in 2025, and in a funny way, I said that an Ashram should be opened and political training should be given there,” news agency quoted Tiwari as saying.
Nitish Kumar ‘s realignment with the RJD-led grand alliance and his attempt to unite the opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have triggered speculations of his prime ministerial ambitions, which he has repeatedly denied.