Rahul was curt, said ‘no’ to Nitish’s request

Rahul Gandhi curtly turned down Nitish Kumar’s proposal that Tejashwi Yadav should be removed as Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, when the JDU leader met him on 22 July, top Congress sources revealed to The Sunday Guardian. The sources added that the Congress vice-president was aware of Nitish’s backdoor hobnobbing with the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but “continued to side with the Rashtriya Janata Dal” in the political impasse that eventually saw the Bihar Chief Minister exiting the Grand Alliance on Wednesday and forming a new government with his erstwhile ally, the BJP.

“When Nitish Kumar met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, he clearly told him that he would continue with the Grand Alliance in Bihar, but under the condition that Rahul helped him get rid of Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy and also ensure that no other Lalu Yadav kin, in particular Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti, took over as Tejashwi’s replacement,” a Congress insider told this reporter.

This newspaper earlier reported that Nitish Kumar had conveyed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that not only Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar’s then Deputy CM and Lalu Yadav’s younger son, would have to resign, but that Nitish Kumar would also not accept RJD MP Misa Bharti as Tejashwi’s replacement ( Nitish vetoes Lalu kin as deputy, 16 July).

The source said that Rahul, who had been taking RJD’s side throughout, “refused to cooperate. He opposed any move that was aimed at removing Tejashwi from office. In the meeting, he came across as somebody who was