Patna: RJD legislators and other senior party leaders on Thursday rejected the demand for resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav over the CBI raids.
A senior RJD leader said that the final decision on the issue lies only with Lalu Yadav because his party has 80 MLAs in the state Assembly.
“Lalu Yadav is a bigger leader in Bihar because the RJD is a bigger party and so whatever decision he takes will be final”, senior RJD leader Bhai Virendra told this newspaper.
The RJD leader gave the statement after JD(U) spokesperson Niraj Kumar said that the party was not convinced by Tejashwi’s clarification on the issue and asked him to come up with fact based explanations.
More than 48 hours have passed since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar asked RJD, especially Tejashwi, to furnish a detailed explanation to the public about the charges against the family.
“CBI had registered FIR on the basis of facts. Everything is in public domain, so giving a political speech won’t work, he will have to present proof with facts,” Niraj told this newspaper on Thursday.
Though the JD(U) senior leader said that there was no time frame for Tejashwi to issue a public explanation but he claimed that the party expects him to respond at the earliest.
Claiming that the sentiments of the party were at stake, Niraj said that JD(U) expects RJD to show unity in Tejashwi’s case as they had done when the state government had acted against leaders like Mohammad Shahabuddin and Raj Ballabh Yadav.
“RJD has always shown unity in various other cases against leaders who belonged to their party including Mohammad Shahabuddin and we are hopeful that they will show the same unity while taking a decision on Tejaswi Yadav”, he said.
Tejaswi Yadav’s residential premises in Patna were raided last week by CBI on the basis of FIR in connection with a corruption case. The FIR also included names of RJD Chief Lalu Yadav and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi.
Tejaswi Yadav had earlier said that cases filed against him and his family were a well-planned conspiracy by the BJP to damage Lalu Yadav’s campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“BJP is bringing up cases of 2004 against me. How could I be a criminal at 13 or 14, I didn’t even have a moustache then”. Tejaswi Yadav had said on Wednesday in Patna.
His defence was later rejected by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who said that he became the owner of the property after he turned an adult “with moustache and beard. He can’t run away by giving such statements”.
