Patna: Former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav has requested Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to allow him retain his official bungalow allotted to him as the deputy chief minister, citing personal reasons.
Mr Yadav also cited the precedence of the BJP leaders who retained their official bungalows after Mr Kumar distanced himself from the NDA in 2013.
The housing department has served an eviction notice to Mr Yadav and other RJD and Congress leaders, who were ministers in the grand secular alliance government, after expiry of the stipulated one-month period.
“He must realise that his party is not in the government anymore. He must vacate the official bungalow allotted to him when he was the deputy CM of Bihar,” JD(U) spokesperson Niraj Kumar said.
Mr Yadav is entitled to a ministerial bungalow as the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar legislative Assembly. Sources said a huge amount of money was spent on the bungalow when Mr Yadav was the deputy chief minister.
According to an insider, more than Rs 50 crores were spent on the renovation work of the government property which was used by Mr Yadav only occasionally.
“The housing department has issued a letter asking him to vacate the bungalow for the new deputy chief minister and now he has been given the bungalow which was earlier allotted to Sushil Kumar Modi,” one RJD worker close to Lalu Yadav’s family told this newspaper on condition of anonymity.
The bungalow has been allotted to Sushil Kumar Modi who became the deputy chief minister after Nitish Kumar dumped the grand secular alliance and formed a government with the BJP in Bihar.
Mr. Modi on Friday took a dig at Tejashwi Yadav for showing his reluctance to vacate the government property. He said, “I fail to understand why Tejashwi Yadav who has 30 properties in his name doesn’t want to vacate this government property. It is due to their greed for money and property the whole family has landed in trouble and facing are facing corruption charges”.
