Shivanand Tiwari: ‘With Nitish with us, we had a clear advantage. But now, it is very tough… (On job front) Tejashwi has clearly scored over Nitish’

A day after JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar walked out of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) to rejoin the BJP-led NDA and become the Chief Minister for the ninth time, RJD national vice president and veteran socialist leader Shivanand Tiwari speaks to The Indian Express on various issues ranging from Nitish’s move and its ramifications for the Opposition camp to RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s political trajectory. Excerpts:

What can I say? I cannot imagine. I am shocked, dismayed, surprised and saddened. Having known Nitish all these years and also having played a crucial part in his political journey when I had also walked along with him from Janata Dal in 1993 to form Samata Party, I can safely say that it is not the same person and politician. He was once known for his political acumen. I want to know who had invited him to join Mahagathbandhan in August 2022. I am also a witness to how he, after returning to us in 2022, had apologised to former CM Rabri Devi with folded hands for his 2017 switch to BJP. That time, I was made to believe that he would now stay back and give a right direction to Mandal politics we all championed all these years.

Tejashwi has evolved as a very mature leader and I see a great potential in him. While he has drawn heavily from his father Lalu Prasad’s social justice theme, he has very smartly woven development politics into it. He had successfully done it during the 2020 Assembly polls when the RJD had almost come to power on the promise of 10 lakh jobs. After Nitish and Tejashwi got together in 2022, we saw how Tejashwi made Nitish own up his job theme. The same Nitish who had laughed away Tejashwi’s job promise at the Gopalganj rally during 2020 poll campaign ended up distributing