The Janata Dal (United) has expressed strong resentment over the portrayal of its president and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's memoir, maintaining that Kumar was actually the main architect and driving force behind the opposition INDIA bloc.
Rejecting assertions made in the book that Kumar had been looking for a chance to depart the alliance and was under the influence of the BJP, JDU national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad alleged that the narrative was part of a political strategy to mislead the public.
In her book titled Belonging: A Journey of Love, Gandhi recounts Kumar's eventual return to the National Democratic Alliance in early 2024 and suggests he was eager to exit the opposition formation. In response, Prasad stated that regional parties were initially reluctant to include the Congress in the opposition coalition, and that it took Kumar's personal persuasion to bring them together for the successful opening meeting in Patna.
Prasad further claimed that Kumar ultimately decided to leave the INDIA bloc after concluding that the alliance lacked the capacity to effectively challenge the NDA, hampered by the regional political interests and ambitions of the Congress and its various allies.
The JDU continues to maintain that its leader brought the opposition parties to the table and only walked away when it became evident that the coalition could not function cohesively against the ruling coalition.