Raghuvansh Prasad Singh at the RJD office in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Thursday touched the raw nerves of the grand alliance, questioning the authority of Nitish Kumar to lead it.

“Nitish is not the leader of the grand alliance. There are many leaders in the alliance and he is just one of them. How can he lead the alliance?” Raghuvansh asked, making a mockery of the JDU’s demand to muzzle him for his alleged statements against the spirit of the alliance.

“The JDU leaders should look after their own party. My criticism will benefit the Manjhi government. The JDU leaders who know about ground reality do not mind my criticism,” said Raghuvansh, adding that the RJD would hit the streets on the law order and corruption issues.

Another senior RJD leader and former MP Jagdanand Singh also did not sound enthusiastic about the grand alliance. “What grand alliance? Where is the grand alliance?” he asked, criticising the Manjhi government.

The state elections just a year away, some RJD leaders pointed out that it was the right time to put pressure on the JDU to get more seats. One among them said more criticism of the state government could be expected from the party in the days to come.

The JDU leaders are furious over the noises being made by the RJD leaders, especially Raghuvansh. JDU spokesperson Sanjay Singh told The Telegraph: “Raghuvansh made a childish demand of removing health minister Ramdhani Singh. A minister remains in his seat at the will of the chief minister. He should resist from trying to weaken the alliance between JDU and the RJD.”

Some JDU leaders stressed that despite the setback in the Lok Sabha elections, Nitish was the best bet for the alliance for projecting as the chief ministerial candidate because his regime brought in development in the state. “Who will the RJD project as its chief miisterial candidate — Rabri Devi or Misa Bharati? They will do well to remember that the JDU-BJP got an overwhelming majority in the 2010 Assembly elections because the people of Bihar feared that Lalu would be back to power if they did not vote for the NDA,” said a former JDU MP, stressing that people vote differently in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly polls.