Unjust if I quit, Tejashwi tells Nitish

The CBI raids in Bihar were a political vendetta and the Lalu family would respond to them legally, Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav told Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the end of the cabinet meeting here on Tuesday.

The one-to-one meeting, the first between Nitish and Tejashwi after the CBI raids, lasted for more than 45 minutes in the state secretariat. During the July 12 meeting, which was the first cabinet meet after the CBI raids, they had avoided talking to each other.

According to sources, Tejashwi, son of RJD president Lalu Yadav, gave examples of BJP leaders who had not resigned from their posts despite FIRs and even charge-sheets being filed against them and stated that it would be unjust if he left his position as a deputy CM just because he was booked in a CBI FIR.

JDU sources said Nitish asked Tejashwi to present his defence in public. Soon after the two met, Lalu Yadav called a meeting of RJD ministers at his residence.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushil Modi, who has been at the forefront of the expose against the Lalu family, did another press conference in Patna where he alleged that Tejashwi owned 26 properties at the age of 26.

“When he was a minor and didn’t even have moustache, he owned 13 properties. And after he was an adult, he became the owner of 13 more properties,” Modi said.

Modi, who is the state BJP Parliamentary Party chief, said there was a difference between a general FIR and a CBI FIR as the investigation agency files FIR after it finds evidences of irregularities.