"Ideologically, No Place For Me In Current JDU": KC Tyagi To NDTV On Exit

KC Tyagi, a founder-member of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United and once the party's face in Delhi, has unplugged himself from the party, ending a 40-year association. "Ideologically, there is no place for me in the current JD(U)," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview a day after Nitish Kumar got elected to Rajya Sabha. 

Asserting that the party has undergone a transformation, he said he is no longer able to have a dialogue with the people with whom he built the party. "To whom shall I voice my concerns," he said he often found himself wondering. 

The words reflect deep misgivings, dating back from the days when Nitish Kumar decided to end ties with the Grand Alliance and go back to the NDA fold.

Since then, Tyagi has found himself out of sync and got sidelined within the party. In 2023, he got dropped from the party's national team -- the JD(U) said he had requested repeatedly to get relieved of the organisational responsibilities. 

The next year, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad replaced him as the party's national spokesperson. 

In January this year, the JD(U) publicly distanced itself from his demand for the Bharat Ratna for Nitish Kumar. 

After Tyagi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the award, JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said, "This is Tyagi ji's personal statement. The party has nothing to do with it".

"Tyagi ji doesn't have much involvement with JDU affairs. The party workers don't know whether he's even in the party," he had added, indicating that Tyagi's comment had landed the party in deep discomfort. 

Over the years, KC Tyagi had diverged from the government's balanced stance on the Israel Palestine war, saying India cannot be complicit in genocide by Israel; he said voters were upset with the government's Agneepath Scheme and Waqf - statements many felt could jeopardise the alliance with the BJP.

Socialist Background

Tyagi belonged to the group of Bihar leaders who found their feet in politics amid the deep influence of the socialist movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan. He was also closely associated with senior leader Sharad Yadav, who was one of the biggest faces of socialist politics in North India. 

Over time, he became one of Nitish Kumar's trusted aides and played an important role in explaining the party's stand at the national level.

About those days, Tyagi recalled that he and Kumar were jailed together during the Emergency era. During the Prime Ministership of Rajiv Gandhi, while attending a Youth Festival in Cuba, he and Kumar had shared a room for 18 days.

The veteran leader has served as a Member of Parliament since 1989 - first in the Lok Sabha and then in Rajya Sabha from 2013 to 2016. That was when Nitish Kumar had personally summoned him to Patna, hosted him for a meal, and sent him to Rajya Sabha, Tyagi had recalled. 

Asked whether he had desired to return to the Rajya Sabha this time, Tyagi was emphatic. "No, never. I did not even seek a ticket. And given that Nitish Kumar and Ramnath Thakur were the ones contesting, the question of me asking for a seat simply did not arise," he said. 

About his future course of action, he said he would hold a meeting at Delhi's Mavalankar Hall on March 23 and then take a decision. In what appeared a hint, he said he has long followed Chaudhary Charan Singh.

But one thing is certain. "Objections arise from all quarters whenever I step into the limelight... (but) I have always spoken my mind with honesty and intend to continue doing so," he said.