NITISH VETOES LALU KIN AS DEPUTY

This could be Nitish Kumar’s strategy to cement his own position further and destroy the two Yadav siblings’ future shot at power.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is determined not to have a Lalu Yadav kin as his deputy, sources told The Sunday Guardian. Kumar has conveyed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that not only Tejashwi Yadav, the current Deputy Chief Minister and Lalu Yadav’s younger son, will have to resign, but he will also not accept Misa Bharti, Lalu’s eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member, as Tejashwi’s replacement, sources added.

This is being read as Nitish Kumar’s strategy to cement his own position further and destroy the two powerful Yadav siblings’ future shot at power within the coalition government. The RJD will be now left with the option to promote Tej Pratap, Lalu’s elder son, as a likely candidate for the Deputy CM’s post. But Tej Pratap has been, despite a berth in Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet, only a second fiddle to both Tejashwi and Misa, whom Lalu is said to have groomed as his political heirs.

“Sonia Gandhi called Nitish Kumar on Wednesday and then again on Friday to save the Grand Alliance from collapsing. Nitish Kumar has sent out the message to her that he would not accept either Tejashwi or Misa as the Deputy Chief Minister, although he has assured her that he will not take any hasty decisions or break the Grand Alliance,” a source told this reporter.

The source added that the Congress president, who is determined not to let the Grand Alliance collapse and Nitish’s JDU join hands with old ally BJP again, has asked the Bihar CM to meet her in New Delhi. “She has asked Nitish Kumar to meet her and sort out the differences. She has asked him to also meet Lalu Yadav,” the source added.

Both Tejashwi and Misa are facing serious charges of corruption. The CBI is probing Tejashwi in the land-forhotels case. It is alleged that Tejashwi was granted the ownership of three acres of land at a prime location in Patna in 2004 from a private party, who were given the licence to run two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri by his father Lalu Yadav, the then Railway Minister. Misa Bharti is under investigation by the Enforcement Di-