THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The JD(U) in Kerala has decided to sever its ties with the national party following the break-up of the grand alliance in Bihar. The state unit may form a separate party by reviving the previous Socialist Janata Democratic. JD(U) chairman M.P. Veerendra Kumar has demanded that the two JD(U) MPs should disown Mr Nitish Kumar and asked party president Sharad Yadav to oust Mr Nitish Kumar from the party. “The future course of action will be decided by the state council. We cannot join with fascist and communal organisations just for a Rajya Sabha seat,” Mr Veerendra Kumar said in New Delhi. He clarified that no discussions had been held with the LDF so far.
Mr Veerendra Kumar had formed the SJD in 2009 along with a group of leaders like M. V. Shreyams Kumar, K. P. Mohanan, Varughese George and Shaikh P. Harris who came out of the JD(S) following the dispute with the LDF on the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat. Mr Veerendra Kumar, who was trounced in the Palakkad seat by CPM’s M. B. Rajesh in 2014, had alleged that the local UDF leaders had worked for his defeat. The KPCC leadership is keeping mum over the sub-committee report on the debacle.
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan welcomed the Kerala JD(U) to the NDA fold and said Mr Nitish Kumar’s decision to join hands with the BJP showed the political polarisation in the country. “The JD(U) was at the receiving end when it was in the LDF and the UDF. This is the right time for the party to join the NDA in Kerala,” he said. CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan asked the JD(U) to take the right political stand. “The party should sever its ties with the UDF and Nitish Kumar,” he said in Kozhikode.
