Shivanand Tiwari heckled at Chintan Shivir for some plainspeaking

Patna,(BiharTimes): It was in the presence of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar that a couple of senior Janata Dal (United) leaders did some plainspeaking.

One of them, Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwari, was even heckled and shouted down by some party workers at Chintan Shivir in Rajgir on Tuesday.

Upon this Tiwari got angry and turning to JD(U) President Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar asked "Why are party workers being encouraged against me?” He asked the chief minister why he was slighting him in the party. He said Nitish needs to have a large heart to assume top post and that he should have a team of able persons instead of patronising sycophants.

Party national president Sharad Yadav, later said that there were no hard feelings over Tiwari’s remarks. He said “we had announced at the very beginning, to speak from your heart (khulle dil se bolo).”

The situation turned a bit chaotic when Tiwari asked the party leaders and workers that Narendra Modi’s rise from a tea stall vendor to a contender for Prime Minister is meteoric and can not be underestimated or ignored.

Not only Tiwari but the agriculture minister Narendra Singh flayed the chief minister’s style of functioning. He too said that dedicated party workers are being ignored and overlooked.

Shivanand Tiwari, however, said that he was against Modi’s ideology but one should acknowledge the strength of the rivals too.

Tiwari, however, alleged that Modi is a Hindu hardliner and must be fought strongly.

However, his comments were interpreted as praise for Modi by angry partymen.

Interestingly, Tiwari rose to publicly appreciate Nitish Kumar after the latter finished his 75-minute long speech in which the chief minister strongly criticized the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.