Sharad Yadav faction moves EC, JD(U) asks him to skip Lalu’s rally

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The JD(U) faction, led by Sharad Yadav, on Friday approached the Election Commission (EC), claiming that it represented the “real” party and that a majority of its national council members were with it.

The development came on a day the Janta Dal (United) wrote to Yadav, asking him to skip the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) rally in Patna on Sunday and asserted that if he attended it, he would be working “against the party’s principles”.

It would mean that he has quit the party voluntarily, the JD(U) missive sent to Yadav by its secretary general K C Tyagi, said. Yadav had earlier said he would be attending the RJD rally and leave for Patna tomorrow.

Arun Shrivastav, a close aide of the rebel JD(U) leader and former general secretary of the party who was removed from the position recently, told reporters that their faction had told the EC that a majority of the party workers, national council members and state presidents were with it.

“We are the founder members of the party. How can Nitish Kumar remove us?,” he asked, adding that they were not in a “live-in relationship” with the JD(U) president that he could remove them “as per his whims”. The Yadav faction has also staked claims over the JD(U)’s poll symbol (arrow) and the offices allotted to the party.