Amid high drama, police foil Tejashwi’s bid to ‘walk the talk’
PATN: After hours of tense standoff with the police as he emerged from his residence Friday morning to carry out his “ultimatum” to lead a procession to Gopalganj in protest against the murder of three family members of a party leader, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, met Speaker Vijay Kumar Chowdhary and sought a special session of the House to discuss law and order and other pressing issues, a demand turned down by the Speaker who said only the Governor had such powers as the House was prorogued.
Around 10 am, Tejashwi, who had earlier given a call to party workers and MLAs to take out a procession to Gopalganj to protest the killings for which a JD(U) MLA has been named as one of the accused in the FIR, came out of the 10, Circular Road, the bungalow allotted to his mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi.
However, Tejashwi, his MLA brother Tej Pratap, Rabri Devi, state RJD chief Jagadanand Singh and a number of MLAs were prevented from moving any further by the police and officials who had cordoned off the area, leading to a face-off.
DSP (secretariat) Rajesh Kumar Prabhakar had met
Tejashwi earlier in the day and handed him a letter saying their procession could not be allowed in view of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The stalemate, which lasted hours, ended after Tejashwi said he wished to meet the Speaker, which was allowed by the district administration. Later, Tejashwi, Tej Pratap Yadav and Jagadanand Singh met the Speaker at 1.15 pm.Coming out of the meeting, Yadav said, “Our job is to expose the government for its failures on multiple fronts, especially in the wake of lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, and we have succeeded in it. We have demanded that special session of the Assembly be called at the earliest to discuss burning issues to further expose the government.”
Tejashwi said though there was no restriction on movement within the city with proper safeguards during the lockdown, he was stopped even from going to the Vidhan Sabha. “I knew it they would create hurdles, but they have only exposed themselves. Without chief minister Nitish Kumar’s consent, no permission can be granted here,” he said.
Rabri Devi too fumed over denial of permission to visit Gopalganj. “Why should anyone stop us if we have to meet the family members of our party leader killed in Gopalganj. We are following all norms, but the government wants to deprive us from meeting our own party cadres,” she said. On Sunday last, RJD leader J P Yadav’s mother, father and brother were shot dead in Gopalganj district. JD(U) MLA Amar Nath Pandey alias Pappu Pandey was named in an FIR along with others and his elder brother and his son were arrested while the MLA himself is at large.
Tejashwi has accused CM Nitish Kumar of shielding the MLA and had set an ultimatum till Thursday for his arrest, failing which he would visit Gopalganj and take out a march. Gopalganj DM Arshad Aziz had said that he had no official confirmation regarding the march. “But if they come and create any disturbance, action would be taken against them as per law,” he said.