RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had ‘begged for forgiveness for past betrayals’ before his parents, party supremo Lalu Prasad and ex-CM Rabri Devi before they allied with the JD(U) president in 2022.
Yadav, who was removed from the position of Deputy Chief Minister last month when Kumar joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, recently spoke at a rally in Mohania, located in the Kaimur district of Bihar. The rally was organized as a part of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
Breaking into the local dialect of Bhojpuri, the young RJD leader said, “Nitish ji had, after begging for forgiveness, told my parents that the BJP was trying to split his party and wean away his MLAs”.
Kumar dumped the BJP and joined the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan in 2022.
The RJD leader added: “We were initially not very inclined towards trusting him again. But there were talks with leaders across the country, all of whom thought that in the larger interest of the fight against BJP, we should agree. So we made a sacrifice”.
Calling his ex-boss “a tired Chief Minister”, the RJD leader said he is proud that in just 17 months the Mahagathbandhan made him give government jobs on an unprecedented scale.
“He (Kumar) had mocked me by asking whether I would use my father’s money to pay them salary. But I had told him that our support to his government would require him to help us fulfill the promise of 10 lakh government jobs that I had promised to the people ahead of the 2020 assembly polls,” Yadav said.
Yadav alleged that the administration manipulated the assembly polls, ensuring that its candidates lost by as little as 12 votes. He claimed that the Mahagathbandhan would have won the election otherwise.
Fishing in troubled waters of the NDA, which Kumar has joined claiming he was there “forever” even as the BJP has made it clear that it will not give up its ambition to form its government in Bihar, Yadav said, “Now that Nitish ji is back with the BJP, there is no guarantee that he will not make a flip-flop again”.
Cries of “palturam (Mr turncoat)” emanated from the crowds, even as the RJD leader added that he had said in the assembly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi prides himself on his guarantees. Still, even he cannot guarantee that Nitish Kumar will not do another volte-face”.
Yadav’s averment came close on the heels of his father making it clear that the RJD’s “doors were always open” for Kumar, causing an indignant JD(U) to retort: “The famed padlock of Aligarh has now been placed on the doors”. The young RJD leader added: “We asked the chief minister to at least explain why he was turning his back on us. But he could give no reason. We wonder if he is afraid of ED and CBI”.
Earlier, at a farmers’ congregation (Kisan Mahapanchayat) in the adjoining district of Rohtas, Yadav took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for paying no heed to the demands of cultivators who were staging a protest in Delhi.
“He does not have even two minutes to spare for the farmers. But he has time for Priyanka Chopra”, said Yadav, in an apparent reference to the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Bollywood star a few years ago.
Yadav also referred to his inability to join Gandhi in the first phase of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s journey through Bihar last month.
“On one day, my father was made to appear before the ED, and on the next day, it was my turn. But we are not the ones who such things will cow down,” he said.
Yadav had also joined Gandhi for a roadshow in Sasaram where, upon the former Congress president’s beckoning, he took to the wheel of the car for a brief while.
The Congress hailed the presence of the young RJD leader, sharing the video of Yadav behind the steering wheel with the slogan “Hum INDIA waale”, borrowed from a Bollywood song to signify that the opposition bloc was in high spirits, recent setbacks notwithstanding.
(with PTI inputs)