Don’t need Nitish in grand alliance: Tejashwi

Jitendra K Shrivastava

Patna, July 5

Attacking Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, leader of Opposition and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s younger son Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said he did not need “Nitish chacha” to defeat BJP in the forthcoming election.

Addressing party workers on the RJD’s 22nd foundation day, Tejashwi said: “We need none, including ‘Nitish chacha’ to defeat BJP. In recent bypolls, we defeated BJP-JD(U) combine and we will repeat it in 2019.” 

He said Nitish had made his stand clear when he broke away from the alliance. “He joined hands with the BJP to make double-engine government for the sake of Bihar’s development. Since Bihar hasn’t been given special status or package, Nitish ji should respond where his development agenda vanished,” he said. After a few Congress leaders suggested including Nitish back into the alliance, Tejashwi said he would not let this happen even if he was offered the CM’s post.

‘No Rift, Tejashwi has a long way to go’

Tejashwi Yadav’s elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, omission of whose name from the invitation card of the function had added gist to speculation of a rift in the family, attended the party foundation day event and crowned his brother. In a show of unity, he reportedly said, “Tejashwi has a long way to go”.  Agencies