Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday finally responded to party leader Pavan K Varma’s letter questioning the Janata Dal (United) decision to extend the alliance with the BJP to Delhi. Kumar said he was surprised by Varma’s public statements and made it clear that the former diplomat was free to exit the party if he wanted.

“He can go and join any party he likes. My best wishes,” the chief minister said on Thursday, two days after Varma wrote a letter to the chief minister on the BJP alliance for the Delhi elections.

Varma had left red faces in his party after he quoted from his private conversations with the chief minister.

Nitish Kumar, he had written, mentioned to him that the BJP’s policies were inimical to the country’s interests and were leading India into a “dangerous space”.

“When you (Kumar) were leading the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance), you openly made a call for RSS-mukt Bharat (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh free India),” he said.

“… I remember your confessing to me in private how the current leadership in the BJP party has humiliated you… If these are your real views, I fail to understand how the JD (U) is now extending its alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar, when even long-standing allies of the BJP, like the Akali Dal, have refused to do so,” Varma had written.

On Thursday when reporters asked Nitish Kumar about his party colleague, the JDU boss made his displeasure clear. “If anyone has any issues then the person can discuss it within a party or at party meetings, but such kind of public statements are surprising,” Kumar told reporters, according to news agency ANI.