Prashant Kishor sacked from JD-U: Janata Dal-United chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday cracked the whip and sacked party vice-president Prashant Kishor and and leader Pavan Varma over their stand on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). “Thank you Nitish Kumar. My best wishes to you to retain the chair of Chief Minister of Bihar. God bless you,” Prashant Kishor tweeted soon after Kumar’s decision to remove him from the party position.

Kumar’s move to sack Kishor came a day after the ‘master election strategist’ slammed the Bihar CM for lying about his induction in the party. Nitish Kumar had told reporters in Patna on Tuesday that Kishor was inducted in JD-U on the recommendation of the then BJP president Amit Shah. Kishor had joined JD-U as vice-president in 2018.

In his first response after getting expelled from the party, Varma said he had only asked for clarity on the issue of CAA and NRC.

Since the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, both Varma and Kishor had questioned Nitish Kumar’s decision to support the government.

The differences deepened a week ago when Varma divulged that Nitish had expressed apprehensions over CAA to him in private. Visibly embarrassed over the statement of Varma, Nitish had said that he is “free to leave the party”.

Walking a tightrope due to impending assembly polls in Bihar in 2021, Nitish had given the party’s crucial support to the government for the passage of the CAA in Rajya Sabha. The Bihar CM had later clarified that he doesn’t support the government’s plan on the NRC.

The BJP has already declared that it will fight the state election in Bihar under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.