'He can go and join any party he likes': Nitish Kumar to Pawan Verma in fight over CAA

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Bihar Chif Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday broke his silence days after his party colleague Pavan Varma asked him to clear his stand on the CAA and NRC and threatened to quit the party. Speaking to the reporters in Patna, the JDU chief expressed “surprise” over Varma’s “public” remarks and said that "he can go and join any party he likes.”

“If anyone has any issues then the person can discuss it within the party or at party meetings, but such kind of public statements are surprising. He can go and join any party he likes, my best wishes,” news agency ANI quoted Nitish Kumar as saying.

Kumar also expressed strong displeasure over Varma for sharing on the social media a letter wherein he had made mention of the chief minister having expressed apprehensions "in private" about the BJP's "divisive" agenda.

"He is a learned man for whom I have a lot of respect even if he may not have similar sentiments for me. But is it proper to share such things in public and not on a party forum? What if I start sharing what he said to me in public?", Kumar told reporters here.

Responding to Varma's repeated demands for "ideological clarity", Kumar said, "The JD(U)s stand is very clear...he is free to go wherever he likes".

In his letter, Varma had challenged his party chief to "harmonise" what he felt in private and what the JDU did in public.

"On more than one occasion, you have expressed your grave apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine. If these are your real views, I fail to understand how the JDU is now extending its alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar, when even long standing allies of the BJP, like the Akali Dal, have refused to do so. "This is especially so at a time when the BJP, through the CAA-NPR-NRC combine, has embarked on a massive social divisive agenda aimed at mutilating the peace, harmony and stability of the country," Mr Varma wrote.