PATNA: Sharad Yadav , who built his career as a political leader by presiding over parties that thrived on harvesting caste-based votes, is suddenly bemoaning the fact that two of his protégés — Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar — failed to rise above caste politics.With prospects of JD (U) poor at best, Sharad Yadav's statement against Nitish is being read by observers as an indication he wanted to distance himself from the Bihar CM's group and probably nudge the BJP as seeing him as a possible Modi ally.Sharad Yadav told an election meeting on Friday in Muzaffarpur that both Nitish and Lalu grew up in politics under his shadow. But he was pained to see they could not rise above caste politics. "Lalu destroyed Bihar due to his caste politics and now Nitish is also following him. I take the responsibility for the pathetic condition of the state (because I groomed these leaders)," said the JD(U) president.Sharad also criticized the party nominee from Muzaffarpur, Vijendra Chaudhury, who was not present at the meeting. Vijender had left the JD(U) earlier and hopped from one party to another before coming back to the fold. "Ab unt (camel) pahad ke ciche aa gaya hai," he said.State unit chief Bashishtha Narain Singh disapproved of Sharad's statement against the CM and party's Muzaffarpur nominee. "He (Sharad) should have refrained from making such statements in public," he told TOI.On the issue of support to Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi, Singh sounded a discordant note, criticizing party general secretary K C Tyagi's announcement that JD(U) would campaign for AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in his electoral fight against Narendra Modi. "No leader from Bihar will go to Varanasi to campaign for Kejriwal. Our leaders are bust campaigning for party leaders in Bihar where two rounds of polling are due," said Singh.While Singh said the announcement regarding AAP was made in haste without wider consultation, Tyagi retaliated claiming the decision was taken after discussions with Nitish and Sharad. Tyagi maintained the May 5 meeting at Varanasi is on. "Sharadji and I are going to address the joint rally with AAP leaders," he said. Tyagi also said Singh should have spoken to him before going to the media.While Sharad claimed on Saturday his statement was distorted by the media, senior party leader, including some ministers, said he was in the habit of making such statements to remain in news.