RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Saturday shot off a circular warning its rank and file against association with the Jan Suraaj campaign launched by political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor.
RJD leaders were tight-lipped about the letter signed by state president Jagadanand Singh, who called Jan Suraaj the "B team of the BJP", dependent on the saffron party for its finances.
However, a screenshot of the letter was shared by Jan Suraaj on its X handle with the remark "the RJD, which claims to be Bihar's strongest political party, has grown jittery over the mere announcement that Jan Suraaj will become a political party".
It was also alleged in the social media post that RJD, "known for use of muscle power in politics", was taking recourse to intimidation to keep its flock together.
Notably, Kishor has announced that Jan Suraaj will formally take the shape of a political outfit on Gandhi Jayanti this year and, a year later, contest the Bihar assembly polls.
The IPAC founder, who has worked for politicians as diverse as Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal, has also made it clear that Jan Suraaj will not have a tie-up with any of the existing political players.
Interestingly, the letter issued by Singh stresses that Kishor's ancestors used the surname "Pandey", in a bid to buttress its claim that with a Brahmin as its founder, Jan Suraaj was indeed a proxy for the BJP.