He’s My Friend’s Son: Nitish Kumar Loses Cool on Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav and CM Nitish Kumar.

(Image altered by The Quint)

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday, 27 November lost his cool at RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in the Bihar Assembly after Yadav attacked the Bihar CM by referring to 1991 murder case - in which Kumar was given a clean chit.

Filled with anger, the Bihar chief minister said that Tejashwi Yadav is talking “nonsense, he is lying,” reported NDTV.

The infuriated CM further said: “I keep listening because he is the son of a friend who's like a brother to me. I don't say anything. Who made his father leader of the legislative party, does he know? Who made him Deputy Chief Minister? When there were allegations against him, I asked him to explain. He didn't so I had to leave,” NDTV quoted Kumar as saying.

Kumar was referring to the JD(U)-RJD split in 2017.

Apart from 1991 murder case, the 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav during his rebuttal in the Assembly also referred to Srijan scam, and said that CM Nitish Kumar did not take any action in the matter.

Yadav also called out Nitish Kumar for his “8-9” children jibe during Bihar election campaign.

“I hope the chief minister is aware that the youngest child of my parents was a girl, born after two sons. Now let us come to the fact that the chief minister has only one son. Could we apply his own yardsticks and say that he did not have another out of fear that it could be a girl?”

NDTV quoted Tejashwi Yadav as saying

JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar on 25 October, without specifically naming anyone, took a jibe at Tejashwi Yadav at an election rally.

“Does anyone care? They have eight-nine children. They have no faith in their daughters. After so many daughters, they had a son. You all can see – this is the kind of Bihar they want to make,” Kumar was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Tejashwi expressed his dismay during the debate and said that the NDA focussed on personal attacks during the election campaign, while he talked about “people’s issues”.

Yadav also referred to Prime Minister Modi’s “jungle raj ke yuvraj” remark against the RJD leader.

“I do not like to make snide remarks against my elders. This goes against the values I have been brought up with. I have always addressed the honourable chief minister, even in speeches uttered in the public, as uncle," Yadav said, reported NDTV.

As the war of words continued between the two leaders, the Speaker of the Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha adjourned the Assembly for half an hour.

(With inputs from NDTV and Hindustan Times)