Tejashwi says JD(U) strongman cut ties out of ‘bhai moh for BJP’
Deposed deputy chief minister and leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday accused chief minister Nitish Kumar of conspiring to defame him at a young age so that it could be used as a ploy for switching over to the BJP led NDA, even as he slammed the JD(U) strongman for insulting the mandate of the people in 2015 assembly polls.
Speaking against the trust vote in the state assembly, Tejashwi in a fiery speech, laced with anecdotes of his association with CM Kumar as a deputy chief minister, said the entire episode of CBI FIR against him in the land for hotel scam was stage managed to spoil his image and allow JD(U)BJP alliance to take shape under a pre-planned and meticulously applied strategy.
“I am 28 years old who cannot be charged with any impropriety as a deputy CM. But I was used as a pawn by you (read Nitish) so that your cross over to the BJP could be smooth. Nitish ji , you had long made up your mind to go with BJP and all the hype about seeking resignation over CBI FIR was just a mere drama,” he said, amid thunderous applause from the opposition benches.
He charged the CM for what he called a "waste of four precious years of Bihar". "In the last four years, Bihar has seen four governments just to suit the whims of an individual (Nitish Kumar)," he added, even as he called the new JD(U)-BJP alliance a coalition shaped through ‘manipulation and fraud”.
Extolling his own clean image as a minister, he said he had stopped allowing agenda of tender and variation to the cabinet so that there could be no room for corruption. “Where did I go wrong, tell me,” he asked.
In the same vein, he rebutted the charges that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had played a role in smothering the grand alliance due to his son’s love ( putra moh) by not allowing him to resign as deputy CM despite JD(U)’s pressure. “The GA has not withered due to putra moh. But it has broken because of bhai moh,” he said, implying that CM Kumar had staged the switch over to BJP because of his long association with the saffron party. He also said the JD(U)-BJP alliance was an insult of the mandate of backward, minorities and weaker sections who had voted for the grand alliance. “This is murder of democracy,” he said.
On his resignation demands, the Yadav scion said he was under the impression CM was not keen on his resignation as he never asked for it. “I had asked the CM as to what clarification he needed on the FIR. I was ready to give a clarification if a draft could have been made,” he said.