Tejashwi’s Name Plate Removed From Govt Event Attended by Nitish

As Lalu Prasad remains defiant that Tejashwi won’t step down, ties between the JD(U) and the RJD are strained.

A file image of Nitish Kumar (right) and Tejashwi Yadav. (Photo: PTI)

(Photo: PTI)

The rift between the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) seemingly widened further on Saturday morning. Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav decided to skip a government event – 'Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas' – at which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was present. Both their names were mentioned in the invitation.

Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav were expected at the event.(Photo Courtesy: ANI)

Also Read: Tejashwi Yadav: Failed Cricketer, Eligible Bachelor & Lalu’s Heir

JD(U), RJD at Loggerheads

Saturday’s snub comes at a time when the JD(U) is ramping up pressure on the RJD over the corruption case involving Tejashwi, asking the alliance partner to come clean on the allegations against him.

On Friday, state Janata Dal (United) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the RJD should provide facts and not “display arrogance” of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls. In 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition.

In Delhi, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said Chief Minister Nitish would never compromise on the issue of corruption.

Nitish Kumar’s stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it.

Asked what his party expected from the RJD over the charges against Tejashwi, Tyagi said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over the allegations – an issue his party had made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.

Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said Tejashwi will not resign. He also claimed that the state's ruling Grand Alliance is intact.

“Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation,” Lalu Prasad told the media here after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence.

He said the RJD was going by the decision of its legislature party that met earlier this week and decided that Tejashwi Yadav would not resign.

Further, Lalu refuted media reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had been requested to intervene to save the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government in the state.

A baseless news is running in television news channels that Sonia Gandhi has spoken to me.

He, however, said that he would not know if Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Nitish Kumar.

"There is no difference with Nitish Kumar, and there is no distance from him either," said Lalu Prasad.

He said that the BJP-led government at the Centre had been using the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to destabilise the Grand Alliance government. 

"BJP wants that the Grand Alliance government to fall somehow...But we will not allow that to happen," he stressed.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS)