Left govt bungalow as Nitish unleashed ghosts in it: Tej Pratap Yadav

Patna: Six months after stepping down from his post as Bihar's health Minister, Tej Pratap vacated his government bungalow in Patna last week claiming that "Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Modi had unleashed ghosts". 

“I decided to vacate the bungalow because Nitish and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had released ghosts in it. The ghosts were haunting me,” the elder son of RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav's son Tej Pratap told the media. 

The bungalow - 3, Deshratna Marg - was allotted to Tej Pratap after he became the health minister in the Nitish Kumar-led alliance government following the October-November 2015 election. The grand alliance of RJD, JD (U) and Congress had won 178 assembly seats in the House of 243, restricting the BJP to 53.

But after the coalition collapsed in 2017 and Nitish Kumar later formed the government with the BJP, Tej was among the politicians who were told to vacate the government allocated bungalows so that others could move in.

In October, 2017, some former RJD ministers moved the Patna High Court against the Bihar government's order that asked them to move out. The court stayed the government's order, after which the government had asked the occupants to pay rent at market rates. Those who have stayed put are yet to comply with the order.

The chief minister's party has dismissed Tej Pratap's ghost remarks as a publicity seeking gimmick. "Tej Pratap Yadav suffers from acute attention deficiency and is trying to compete with his younger brother Tejaswi who is hogging the limelight in the media," the JD(U) said.

Although Tej Pratap was allocated the bungalow, he used it mostly for meeting his supporters during the day and used to stay at the bungalow allocated to his mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi.

Earlier, Tej Pratap had made some alterations to the government bungalow to make it 'Vaastu' compliant. He had shut the main entrance and used the rear exit.