Alliance intact, will not resign: Tejashwi
LASHING OUT Bihar deputy CM says graft charges against him a conspiracy, accuses PM Modi of trying to break alliance
Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav junked corruption allegations against him on Wednesday, terming the charges a political conspiracy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and dismissing speculation that the state’s ruling alliance was under strain.
Talking to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting in Patna, the 26-year-old leader said he had pledged zero tolerance on corruption and that departments under him had faced no graft allegations.
“They are bringing cases of 2004 against me... 2004 mein to humaare mooch bhi nahi aayi thi, 13-14 saal ka baccha kaise ye sab kar sakta hai? (In 2004, I did not even have a moustache. I was a 13-14-year-old at that time. How could a kid do all this?)” Yadav was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Tejashwi, along with his brother and health minister Tej Pratap, had come to attend the cabinet meeting.
“FIR against me is political vendetta….conspiracy by (BJP president) Amit Shah and PM Modi. From day 1 they have tried to break our alliance. The alliance is strong and will not break.”
Tejashwi and his father Lalu
They are bringing cases of 2004 against me... 2004 mein to humaare mooch bhi nahi aayi thi, 1314 saal ka baccha kaise ye sab kar sakta hai?
Prasad are facing charges in an alleged land-for-hotels scam that saw the Central Bureau of Investigation raid his house last week.
Since then, pressure has mounted on the deputy chief minister to resign from the cabinet. His Rashtriya Janata Dal has backed Tejashwi but the chief minister Nitish Kumar is said to want Lalu’s younger son out to restore the government’s clean image.
At a party meeting on Tuesday, Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) gave the RJD three to four days to counter the allegations and gave the example of ministers who had been asked to resign in the past over corruption charges. The cabinet meeting was the first time Tejashwi and Nitish came face to face since the corruption charges surfaced.
Residents of a housing society in Noida’s Sector 78 woke up to a riot-like situation on Wednesday morning when a mob of few hundreds gheraoed the premises and started pelting stones.
The attackers were domestic helps and neighbours of a maid who was allegedly beaten up by one of the residents of Mahagun Moderne, police said.
The mob gathered outside the main gate of the society at 6 am and tried to breach the security. Some even managed to enter the premises with rods and pelted stones at the buildings.
Superintendent of police (city) Arun Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (rural) Suniti and circle officer city-2 Rajeev Kumar Singh rushed to the spot along with a posse of policemen. “Most of the protesters were domestic helps, who were angry that a maid has been allegedly beaten up. We contained the protest and brought the situation under control. The traffic on the road outside the society was also resumed,” Arun Kumar Singh said.
Residents said that a maid was caught stealing from one of the apartments, owned by Mitul Sethi, who told her that she would report the matter to the facility management of the society after which she ran away. More than three hundred domes
CONTINUED ON P 5