Tejashwi meets Nitish, standoff continues

Amid strained relations between the two ruling alliance partners, the JD(U) and the RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a closed-door meeting with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav here on Tuesday evening.

Though what exactly transpired in the meet, which lasted  45 minutes, was not known, sources in the ruling camp said Nitish conveyed to Lalu’s youngest son that no tainted minister has ever continued in his Cabinet. Tejashwi, who has been named as an accused in the FIR lodged by the CBI in the land-for-hotels scam, is in the eye of the storm ever since the central investigating sleuths raided Lalu-Rabri residence on July 7. The Tuesday meeting between Nitish and Tejashwi assumes significance as this was for the first time in the last 10 days that ice was broken.

The media, including print and electronic, was on Tuesday debarred from entering the Secretariat where Nitish had convened a Cabinet meeting from 6 pm onwards. Before leaving to attend the meet, all the Cabinet ministers from the RJD, including Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Alok Mehta, met Lalu Prasad at Rabri Devi’s residence and then went to the Secretariat along with Tejashwi and Tej Pratap.