Amid a standoff between the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal(U), partners in the grand alliance in Bihar, RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav on Tuesday met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after a Cabinet meeting.
Sources in the two parties told The Hindu that Mr. Kumar insisted that Mr. Tejaswi Yadav resign, while the Minister said his party would meet the charges made against him legally. Later, RJD Ministers and leaders gathered at the residence of party chief Lalu Prasad and discussed the political situation.
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One-to-one meeting
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After the Cabinet meeting, Mr. Yadav, along with State Congress chief Ashok Choudhary, Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and some other party Ministers, went straight to Mr. Kumar’s official chamber in the Secretariat.
However, after some time, Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav and Mr. Choudhary came out, leaving Mr. Tejaswi Yadav and Mr. Kumar for a one-to-one meeting.
The meeting went on for about 40 minutes. Later, Mr. Tejaswi Yadav came out and drove straight to the 10 Circular Road residence of Mr. Prasad, where party Ministers and some senior party leaders were waiting for him. After he reached there and shared what transpired between him and Mr. Kumar, the RJD leaders held another meeting.
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Later, State Congress leaders too reached Mr. Prasad’s residence and got into a huddle.
Earlier in the day, all RJD Ministers reached Mr. Lalu Prasad’s residence first and accompanied Mr. Tejaswi Yadav to the Cabinet meeting.
JD(U) leaders have been saying that Mr. Nitish Kumar would not compromise “on his clean image and the RJD leaders should see the writing on the wall”.
However, the RJD leaders kept asserting that “there was no question of Tejaswi Yadav resigning and if need be, all our party leaders will resign along with him and support the alliance government from outside”.
But, the State Congress leaders said “the grand alliance government was intact and united”.
Mr. Tejaswi Yadav on Monday too had said that “the demand for his resignation is a media creation”.
Ever since the CBI raid and lodging of an FIR against him and others in connection with the “land for railway hotel” scam on July 7, there has been a standoff between Mr. Lalu Prasad and Mr. Nitish Kumar.
The Congress, though, has tried hard to broker peace between them. It was also said that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi spoke to Mr. Nitish Kumar to protect the government.
Mr. Lalu Prasad denied there was any communication between him and Ms. Gandhi on this matter.