PATNA/NEW DELHI: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday chided the BJP government at the Centre, saying Central investigating agencies were free to open their offices at his residence. “We are not scared of them,” he said.
Yadav’s remark comes in the background of the Opposition charge that the Modi government is misusing various wings of the Central agencies against its political adversaries. “If the agencies do not get peace even after opening their offices at my residence, I cannot help,” quipped Tejashwi.
Tejashwi had earlier served the government in the same capacity from 2015 to 2017. “I am mature now. I was the leader of opposition and also led my party’s campaign for the 2020 assembly elections when my father (RJD’s Lalu Prasad) was not around.”
He said a case against him was lodged when he was a child, “playing cricket.” He asked why no action was taken against him if he had really done something wrong. The CBI has filed chargesheets against his father Lalu, former CM Rabri Devi and Tejashwi in the 2018 IRCTC scam.
The RJD leader said, “I am no longer the person who once did not even have a moustache. So many days have passed. What happened to that case?”
Earlier, JD-U national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh had also said that his party was not afraid of the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI after a break-up with the BJP. “We are not scared of CBI, ED and Income Tax,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, JD-U leader Upendra Kushwaha said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar can pose a tough challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 general elections. The BJP has alleged that Nitish’s ambition to enter national politics was one of the reasons for his snapping ties with the NDA.
Denying the charge, Kushwaha, president of the National Parliamentary Board of JD-U, asserted, “A tall leader like Nitish can challenge Modi.”
‘Bogus talk,’ Nitish on Sushil Modi’s claim about V-P ambition
PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dismissed as a “joke” the remark by former deputy CM and BJP Rajya Sabha member, Sushil Kumar Modi, that he wanted to be India’s Vice-President.
Without naming Sushi Modi, Nitish said, “You listened to a man claiming that I wanted to be Vice-President. What a joke! It’s bogus. I had no such desire. Have they forgotten how much our party supported the NDA candidates in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential polls?” He added: “They are making such claims only to regain their position in the party.”
Sushil Modi, who was known for his proximity with Nitish, had alleged that the JD-U chief had parted ways with the BJP after the party failed to accommodate his ambitions.