Lalu’s sons in age row, BJP calls for action

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has demanded action against RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s sons for giving wrong details about their age in the election affidavit submitted during the Assembly elections in 2015.

Questions were raised a day after humanities topper Ganesh Kumar was arrested and sent to jail on the grounds that he used forged documents to change his actual age to sit for the intermediate examination.

Mr Modi in a tweet said the “the elder is one year junior to his younger brother and Nitish Kumar is silent on the issue”.

He said, “When Ganesh Kumar can go to jail for giving wrong details about his age, why can’t the government initiate action against Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav.”

The matter is likely to snowball into a controversy as Mr Modi has threatened to approach the Election Commission. Copies of the affidavit released by Mr Modi on Sunday shows that Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of Lalu Yadav, had declared his age as 25 years, while the younger brother Tejaswi Yadav mentioned his age as 26 years.

Mr Modi told this newspaper: “The issue is serious as both the brothers have mentioned their wrong age in the affidavit. The matter can also be challenged in the court, and if proved correct, both the brothers may even lose their membership.”

Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav are the first-time MLA and senior ministers in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet. Mr Modi had earlier raised a string of corruption charges against Lalu Yadav.