Sushil Modi shifts son's wedding venue after Lalu son Tej Pratap Yadav's threat

PATNA: A threat by RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son Tej Pratap Yadav to disrupt the wedding of BJP leader Sushil Modi's son took a fresh turn on Sunday with the Bihar deputy CM deciding to shift the venue to prevent any "untoward incident".

While Tej egged Sushil to hold his son's wedding "without fear", the Yadav scion's warning - caught in a video that went viral last week - that he would beat up the groom's father seemed enough to make Modi change the venue from Shakha Maidan in Rajendra Nagar to Veterinary College grounds.

Modi said this became necessary as the bride's family is removed from politics and unused to such threats of violence. "Knowing the kind of person Tej Pratap is, we decided to change the venue," he said, wondering why Lalu had not condemned his son's statement.

Tej Pratap had said in Aurangabad, "I've been invited by Modi to attend his son's wedding. If I go there, I will expose him in public. Uske ghar mein ghus kar maarenge, uss shaadi mein vahin sabha karenge, tod phod karenge (will thrash him inside his house, hold a public meeting at the marriage venue and vandalise things)."

Asked to comment on Modi's decision to change the wedding venue, Tej Pratap said, "I am not a criminal or a terrorist. Whatever I said at the public meeting should not have been taken literally by Modi. He should go ahead with the wedding without any fear."

Meanwhile, Lalu said Modi seems to be a fearful deputy CM. "How safe are people of Bihar if the deputy CM is so fearful?" he asked.

The Bihar deputy chief minister said apart from several Union ministers, governors of four states confirmed their participation in the wedding ceremony. "Goa governor Mridula Tripathi, West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Meghalaya governor Ganga Prasad and Gujarat governor O P Kohli confirmed they were coming," Modi said.