No realignment with Nitish Kumar, says Tejashwi Yadav

The normally affable Yadav said sternly "there is no offer from anybody. In my party, only RJD president Lalu ji and I are authorised to take any decision on alliances. Please do not talk nonsense".

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav got miffed on Sunday when he was asked about the possibility of a realignment with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president, who snapped alliance with his party last year to return to the BJP-led NDA.

Yadav, the former deputy CM, was addressing a press conference here after a 'dharna' organised by the RJD over alleged "theft and eating up of reservations by the NDA".

When he was asked whether there was a possibility of his joining hands with his former boss and the JD(U) chief ahead of assembly polls, Yadav shot back, "Why would we join hands? Why are you trying to divert attention from the issue at hand?"

It was pointed out to him that in a section of the media, there have been speculations that Kumar, who recently turned 74, was wary that the BJP might push for a leadership change after elections and the RJD was ready to exploit the situation with an "offer" of realignment.

However, the normally affable Yadav replied sternly "there is no offer from anybody. In my party, only RJD president Lalu ji and I are authorised to take any decision on alliances. Please do not talk nonsense".

The young leader underscored that Kumar was "no longer in his senses which was evident from "the quality of language he has come to use in public".

Recalling a couple of instances of Kumar trying to touch the feet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in public, Yadav remarked, "Does this behove the chief minister of a state?" "The day may not be far when Kumar will be falling at the feet of his two current deputies Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary," Yadav claimed.

He accused the BJP of "working on its anti-reservation agenda in Bihar".

"This is why the state government's lawyers in the Supreme Court are not arguing properly when the petition on quotas is heard," he alleged.

Notably, the state government has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Patna High Court which had set aside the legislations raising quotas for deprived castes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.

The RJD leader, whose party was sharing power in Bihar when the hike in quotas were effected in November, 2023, said, "We are fighting to get the quotas restored. We are fighting it out in the court, as well as on the streets".

He alleged, "The chief minister, though, is silent. He is unable to use his clout with the Centre to get the legislations protected against judicial intervention by placing these in the Ninth Schedule (of the Constitution)." Yadav also claimed, "He (Kumar) also seems unconcerned about the need for a nationwide caste census, on the lines of the survey conducted in Bihar when we were in power together."