Nitish has never sought Tejashwi's resignation: Lalu

Amid growing clamour from the BJP-led Opposition, gunning for Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav’s scalp, the RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday made it clear that his son won’t resign from the Nitish Cabinet.

Hours before he left for Ranchi where he has to appear before court in fodder scam cases, Lalu said, “The question of Tejashwi’s resignation does not arise precisely because Nitish, as the Chief Minister of Bihar, has never asked for it.”

Lalu was speaking to media after the meeting of RJD Legislature Party (RJDLP), which was convened two days before the onset of Monsoon session of Bihar Assembly, was over.

Lalu’s assertion comes on a day when his Man Friday and former MP Shivanand Tiwary lambasted Nitish for stretching the strained ties too far. “Nitish khud doodh ke dhule hain kya? (Is Nitish himself a dry honest man?). I know Nitish for the last 40 years. If Tejashwi is forced to resign, then someone else may stumble out Nitish’s old cases too. In that case, it will be difficult for Nitish to respond,” said Tiwary.

The former Rajya Sabha member, who has worked with the RJD as well as the JD (U), said, “Nitish should stop pretending to be showing zero tolerance towards corruption. When he was willing to unite Janata Parivar and join hands with Chautalas, was he not aware that Chautala (former Haryana CM) was jailed on corruption charges.”

Mincing no words in slamming Nitish, Tiwary said, “The entire political crisis could have been resolved if Nitish had held a one to one talks with Lalu. But Nitish has shown no such magnanimity. What kind of leadership is this? If he can’t run a coalition of three parties in Bihar, how can he dream of running or heading a coalition of 18-19 parties at the Centre in 2019?”

 

Later, Tejashwi argued that he won’t clarify on his resignation every day. “The people of Bihar has given a mandate to Grand Alliance till 2020. And the alliance will remain intact despite the BJP making unsuccessful bid to derail Nitish regime,” said the Deputy CM.