'What A Fall for You to Lie About How I Joined JDU': Prashant Kishor Responds to Nitish's Comments

New Delhi: Hours after Nitish Kumar said party vice-president Prashant Kishor was inducted into the Janata Dal (United) at BJP leader Amit Shah's direction, Kishor dismissed the allegation as "a lie".

Kishor took to Twitter on Tuesday evening, tagging the Bihar chief minister in a post saying: "What a fall for you to lie about how and why you made me join JDU!! Poor attempt on your part to try and make my colour same as yours! And if you are telling the truth, who would believe that you still have the courage not to listen to someone recommended by Amit Shah?"

Kumar earlier on Tuesday sought to de-link himself from the strong stand taken by Kishor against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), saying people are free to remain in the party or leave if they want.

When questioned about a series of tweets by Kishor taking a strident position on the two divisive topics, Kumar said, "Someone is tweeting, let him tweet. What do I have to do with that? One can stay in the JDU till one wants...one can also leave if one wants."

Over the last month, Kishor has sought to question the government's position on the citizenship law, taking on senior BJP leaders, including Shah.

A few days ago, he had challenged the Home Minister to implement CAA and NRC in the same "chronology" that he had "audaciously announced".

The public spat between Kishor and Kumar has come amid a heated campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections in which the two are on the opposing sides. While Kishor is handling the campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Kumar’s party has forged an alliance with the BJP to contest on two seats.

The new development comes days after Kumar's sharp words with another senior aide, Pavan Varma, who had openly opposed the party’s official stand on CAA as well as the alliance in Delhi. After Varma wrote an open letter asking Kumar to reconsider his position, the party chief had said he was free to leave the outfit.