Lalu-Tejashwi call on Nitish amid buzz over change of guard in Bihar
The Hindu
RJD Chief Lalu Prasad and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav meet Bihar CM Nitish Kumar amid speculation of a change in leadership.
Amid the buzz that’s going on over a change of guard in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad and his son Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on January 19 called on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his official residence. All three held a closed-door meeting for nearly an hour. After the meeting, Tejashwi Yadav dismissed the rift within the party and also denied reports of Mr. Kumar going back to the NDA fold.
The buzz started after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during an interview to a vernacular daily on January 16., said the party will think over if any proposal comes from those who left NDA. His statement was seen as an offer to Bihar Chief Minister and national president of Janata Dal-(United).
However, it was Mr. Shah who once announced while addressing a rally in West Champaran in February 2023 that BJP’s door had forever closed for Mr. Kumar while calling him Aya Ram Gaya Ram (Turncoat).
Asked about change of guard in Bihar, Mr. Yadav said, “You (media) people are free to assume anything, why should I react on your assumptions. He is the Chief Minister, I am the Deputy Chief Minister, we keep meeting each other. Why do you people have any problem with it? I feel pity, the kind of question you all ask us. There is no truth in any change of guard and I do not need to give clarification every time.”
He further asserted that in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP would be wiped out and Mahagathbandhan will emerge winner winning all the seats.
“From day one when Lalu ji and Nitish ji have come under one room, the BJP is in great pain and you people are also becoming the partner of the saffron party,“ Mr. Yadav said.