Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party had wanted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to become the prime minister, but he is now set to become a Rajya Sabha member.
Addressing a press conference at the party office here, Yadav said that when the SP had formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party earlier, the party had wanted BSP chief Mayawati to become the prime minister.
"When the INDIA alliance was formed, we all wanted Nitish Kumar to become the Prime Minister. But when the Bihar election took place, we said he would retire as the chief minister and not as the prime minister. The Bharatiya Janata Party has gone a step further, and now he will retire as a Rajya Sabha member," Yadav said.
He alleged that the move amounted to an insult to people belonging to the PDA (Pichhde, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) community.
"You tell me which post is bigger -- Rajya Sabha member or chief minister?" Yadav asked reporters.
PDA refers to "Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak" (backward classes, Dalits and minorities), a social coalition advocated by the SP. Nitish Kumar belongs to the Other Backward Classes.
Earlier on Thursday, Yadav had written on X that it was the "biggest abduction in the history of Bihar".
"It may appear to be a political abduction, but in reality, it is an economic abduction of Bihar. The BJP has demanded the entire state as ransom. The next number'¦ the wise will understand," he had said.
Amid protests by JDU workers against Nitish Kumar's 'decision' to shift to Parliament, Nitish Kumar has maintained that his choice to move to the Rajya Sabha was his own and had not been taken under any 'pressure'.
The party announced that Nitish's son Nishant Kumar would formally enter active politics today and carry forward Nitish’s political legacy.