Amid speculation that former allies JD(U) and RJD may rejoin forces after seeing eye to eye on the issue of caste census, Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday put an end to all rumours calling them “hypothetical”. The Leader of Opposition in Bihar also hit out at the recent CBI raids at his parents’ Patna residence in his absence where the central agency had interrogated his mother Rabri Devi for nearly 12 hours. Expecting more such raids in the future, Tejashwi said that the “cowardly” act was “neither the first, nor the last”.
On his return from UK, where Tejashwi had been giving talks on India’s political state, the RJD leader told journalists that the caste-census initiative was his and not the Bihar Chief Minister’s. “When we met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year as part of an all-party delegation to press the demand for caste census, the initiative was mine and not that of Nitish Kumar. Does it mean I am ready for an alliance with the BJP? Please do not get too hypothetical,” said the former Deputy CM, also dismissing rumours of a realignment between the RJD and JD(U). Beside their common stance on caste-based census, both leaders were seen attending Iftar hosted at their respective places.
The RJD leader further said, “It is a fact that we are being targeted through investigating agencies because we are in the opposition. I have been witness to such action against my father since I was a child. This is not the first instance. If the misuse of constitutional agencies continues, it will not be the last either.”
Attacking the BJP over trying to find scams against Lalu Prasad Yadav during his father’s tenure as the Railway Minister, Tejashwi alleged, “Now the railways is being sold in the name of privatisation. Still, it is we who are being accused of wrongdoing.”