Congress netas tell Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to go Rahul Gandhi way

PATNA: Rift within the Bihar Mahagathbandhan seems to be widening with a section of Congress members asking Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to take a cue from Rahul Gandhi and resign as leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Tejashwi, who attended the monsoon session of the House for the first time on Thursday, dismissed the demands of his resignation, saying such talks were merely ‘rumours’. “I don’t waste time on rumours,” Tejashwi said in his assembly chamber.
He, however, refused to comment on Rahul’s resignation as Congress president and his scheduled visit to Patna on July 6.
Among those raising the demand for Tejashwi’s resignation was Congress MLA Rajesh Kumar, who argued that Tejashwi should own the responsibility for the massive defeat of the Mahagathbandhan and quit as LoP.
“The Mahagathbandhan comprising Congress, RJD, Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM (S) and Upendra Kushwaha- led RLSP was not accepted by the electorate in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. As Rahul Gandhi took responsibility and resigned, Tejashwi should also quit as LoP in the same manner as Mahagathbandhan fought the elections under his leadership,” Rajesh said.
Congress’s Bhagalpur MLA Ajit Sharma also told a news channel that Tejashwi should follow the example of Rahul. “Tejashwi should take moral responsibility of the defeat in the elections and resign. It will give a message to the people that Mahagathbandhan has respected their decision,” Sharma said.
Tejashwi, however, made it clear that it will be business as usual as he will take part in the party’s 23rd foundation day function on Friday and then in the national executive committee meeting to be held here on Saturday, where he would also speak on a host of matters.
He said he would visit Harivanshpur village in Vaishali district where deaths of children due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) have been reported. “I would go there in a couple of days after the party decides the programme,” Tejashwi added.
Earlier, RJD MLAs participating in their legislature party meeting held here on June 28 had maintained that if Tejashwi resigned from the post of the leader of opposition, then all the 79 other MLAs of the party would quit the membership of the House. The RJD chief whip in the assembly Bhai Birendra had later disclosed sentiments of the RJD MLAs.
“Tejashwi is not a leader, who will leave his party and the opposition mid-way. The party can’t afford such move, especially when party president Lalu Prasad is behind bars,” Virendra said.
Indeed, Tejashwi, who had been out of the state for over a month after the results of the parliamentary elections on May 23 and remained incognito, returned to Patna on July 1, but briefly attended the state assembly only on Thursday, the day of the fifth sitting of the House. After the pre-lunch session was adjourned, he looked relaxed in his chamber.
Tejashwi clarified that he had suffered ligament and knee injury when he fell in a ditch while campaigning in the recently concluded parliamentary elections, and, therefore, went out of Patna for treatment and recovery. “I was in the country, not necessarily in Delhi, undergoing treatment and physiotherapy,” he said, smiling away the reference to other speculations.