Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, along with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav (PTI Photo)
AMID MOUNTING pressure from opposition BJP to resign after the CBI booked him in a case of corruption, and indications from ally JD(U) to either come clean or swallow his ego and let the coalition survive, Bihar’s Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav met CM Nitish Kumar separately after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. Tejashwi is learnt to have explained his side of the story on the CBI case and raids on his family’s properties earlier this month. The meeting is seen as the first sign of thaw between two alliance partners, especially after Tejashwi last week skipped a government function to avoid sharing the dais with Nitish and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s remarks that Tejashwi, the younger of his two sons in the Cabinet, would not resign and that “anyone can do what he wants”.
While neither party made a statement officially, privately JD(U) leaders wondered how long Tejashwi can avoid either resigning or being sacked, given Nitish’s record of having earlier asked several ministers to quit after corruption cases emerged against them. The fact that Tejashwi went for the meeting is also being seen as the RJD having blinked first. An RJD leader said all ministers from his party were ready to resign today if Tejashwi been asked to step down. Accompanied by most RJD ministers to the state Secretariat for the scheduled Cabinet meeting, Tejashwi went to the CM’s chamber with elder brother and Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav.
Sources said Tejashwi told Nitish that he was a minor when two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri had been allotted for maintenance to a private company — accusing Lalu, Tejashwi and others of involvement in irregularities in the tender process, CBI has booked him, among others. He reportedly maintained that he is a “victim of political vendetta”. Tejashwi is learnt to have also told Nitish that he will present facts before the people during RJD’s rally in Patna on August 27. Stating that only time will tell if the meeting can patch things up, a JD(U) leader said the key question is, “Will Tejashwi have to resign, as four ministers in Nitish Cabinet had had to in the past?”
