FIR against Giriraj Singh: RJD dares Nitish Kumar to resign

PATNA: The RJD and Congress on Thursday sought to corner the ruling NDA in Bihar over an FIR lodged against Union minister Giriraj Singh and others in a land-grab case.
Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav dared CM Nitish Kumar to resign and snap the JD (U)'s alliance with the BJP in the same way as he had resigned after a case was lodged against RJD chief Lalu Prasad last year.

"Nitsh-ji, your alliance party's leader and your favourite Union minister Giriraj Singh has grabbed three acre land belonging to a dalit. Will you break the alliance with the BJP now and resign as the CM? Isn't your conscience saying anything now?" Tejashwi tweeted, referring to Nitish as 'Antaratma Babu' (Mr Conscientious).

Nitish had resigned as the CM of Grand Alliance government on July 26 last year after the CBI lodged an FIR against Tejashwi, Lalu and others in a railway hotels-for-land case. Nitish had then said he took the decision on the call of his conscience (not to run the government in alliance with people facing corruption charges).

Tejashwi was the deputy CM in the three-party alliance government, with the Congress being the third ally.

Tejashwi also took a dig at deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, who had last year held a series of press conferences to allege benami land transactions of the Lalu family, which ultimately led to the fall of the GA government.

"Where is the master of disclosures and rumours Sushil Modi? It seems his mouth is now sealed, and he has gone underground. Is it because he has a share in the grabbed land?" Tejashwi asked in a statement.

Giriraj, on the other hand, refused to comment. "The information about the case came to light with Tejashwi's tweet (on Wednesday). I will not comment on the merit of the FIR, but I will provide all support to the law," Giriraj tweeted on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, the Congress demanded the dismissal of Giriraj. "We are not at all surprised to hear about the land-grab case against Giriraj. A sum of around Rs 4 crore was found from his house few years ago. PM Narendra Modi should sack Giriraj as he is facing serious corruption charges," said Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee's acting president Kaukab Quadri.