PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday contended that he agreed to his party entering into an alliance with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in 2022 only when the latter apologised to the party supremo Lalu Prasad and former chief minister Rabri Devi for ditching his party earlier.
Addressing a public meeting during his ‘Jan Vishwas Yatra’ in Siwan, Tejashwi who has apparently let loose his party MLAs to attack CM inside ongoing assembly’s session by raising acerbic slogans against him, said that he was not in favour of re-inducting Nitish into the grand alliance again as the JD (U) had ditched the alliance in 2017 for forming a government with BJP.
He claimed that Nitish had requested his father and mother (Lalu-Rabri) to forgive him and promised that he would not do the mistake (leaving grand alliance) again with folded hands. He asserted that Nitish had also accused BJP of breaking his party at that time.
“Nitish had sought help from Lalu Ji and also promised to work with us against BJP,” he added. “Senior opposition leaders from across the country told us that we should take Nitish along with us if he is joining the alliance with full sincerity as BJP had also launched its Operation Lotus at that time,” he remarked.
Former deputy chief minister alleged that his party was close to forming a government in the 2020 state assembly election, but his party was prevented from it as the grand alliance fell short of 10-12 seats due to rigging in the election by the then Nitish government.
He said that the electoral malpractice was similar to what happened in Chandigarh Mayor election, which had already been quashed. Tejashwi accused Nitish of attempting to dissolve assembly so that assembly and Lok Sabha election could be held simultaneously.
JD (U) reacted sharply to Tejashwi’s remarks and said that it was Lalu Prasad who had approached Nitish to enter into an alliance to form grand alliance government in the state.