Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday ended speculation over his “prolonged absence” from the State with a tweet that said he was undergoing long-delayed treatment for a “ligament and ACL injury”.
He said he was “very much here” and would continue to fight with “renewed commitment on everyday life issues of the poor”.
His absence from State politics after the crushing defeat of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the recently held Lok Sabha poll had invited jibes from ruling NDA leaders over the past several days.
Earlier, BJP MLA Nitin Navin said, “Such a tragedy took place in the State when over 150 children died in Muzaffarpur district and the Leader of the Opposition was absent from the scene. He was not present even when the monsoon session of the State Assembly began on Friday.”
Leaders of the BJP’s alliance partner JD(U) also took potshots at Mr. Yadav’s “sudden disappearance”.
Rabri retorts
On Friday, when journalists asked his mother and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi about Mr. Yadav’s whereabouts, she said: “ Aapke ghar mein hain (He is in your home).” She later explained that her son was not “hiding” from anyone. “He is doing the work that is expected of him,” she said.
On Saturday, Mr. Yadav tweeted: “Friends! For last few weeks I was busy undergoing treatment for my long delayed ligament & ACL injury. However, I’m amused to see political opponents as well as a section of media cooking up spicy stories.”
“We are accountable to people who look for a socialist-secular and social justice alternative in us and wish to assure that we are very much here and the fight is on... recent developments helped me study, scrutinize, analyze and appraise the things in a different way,” he wrote in another tweet.
“Constantly following up the untimely loss of hundreds of poor kids due to AES... asked party workers, leaders to visit affected families without getting into Photo-OP and MPs to raise it in Parliament & that’s why PM responded. My Dear Bihar! I am very much here (sic),” said a third tweet.
