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Updated: Jun 08, 2019 23:49 IST

The Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), has left it to poll strategist Prashant Kishor to explain his recent meeting with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the party national executive in Patna on Sunday.

Kishor is the JD(U) national vice-president. He was inducted into the party in September 2017. He runs a company that provides support to different political parties at the time of elections.

“He will attend the national executive on Sunday and explain his stand,” JD(U) national president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar told reporters on Saturday after launching the party’s national membership drive.

“There was no problem with the task given to him and with party work. But he will explain on his own about his meeting with the West Bengal CM... We have not received any complaint against him. If we get a complaint, we will take a decision accordingly,” he said.

Clarifying that the JD (U) had nothing to do with the meeting, Kumar said that “as a poll strategist, he (Kishor) has a good relationship with all parties. He recently worked in Andhra Pradesh and got success.”

Kumar expressed surprise that nobody had made a noise when Kishor worked for a party in Andhra Pradesh but was doing so after his meeting with Banerjee in Kolkata on Thursday. Asked if it was because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was is in a direct fight with Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal, he replied, “BJP has not objected to his meetings.”

NO TO JOINING CABINET

Kumar has reiterated that the JD(U) is not interested in joining the Union Cabinet and denied any rift with alliance partner BJP.

“We are not interested in symbolic representation in the Union council of ministers but we are very well entrenched with the NDA [National Democratic Alliance]. As far as Bihar is concerned, we are working together,” said Kumar.

“When we were offered a berth, we thought it was not required. But it should not be construed that we are opposed to NDA. Every party has its own way of working. Our thinking is different,” he added.

The Bihar CM maintained there was no problem in the BJP-JDU alliance and it would jointly contest the Bihar assembly polls due next year. “They (the BJP) have absolute majority on their own and we are with them,” Kumar added.