'Secret talks' with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar: Tej Pratap Yadav fuels speculations after Iftar party

"We will form a government and the game will unfold. This is a secret... had secret talks with Nitish Ji," Tej Pratap said.

Patna:Amid the buzz around Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s presence at an Iftar party organised by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders in Patna, Tej Pratap Yadav on Friday claimed that the party leaders held secret talks with Bihar CM and even went ahead to say that they will form government in the state.

“We had organized an Iftar party where not just Nitish, but BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain, LJP's Chirag Paswan and other leaders had also come. Earlier, I had put up a 'No Entry' board for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and now I have put up an Entry 'Nitish Chacha Ji' board, so he came. We will form a government and the game will unfold. This is a secret... had secret talks with Nitish Ji,” said. Even though Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu's younger son, dismissed the buzz, his elder son, Tej Pratap seems to have fuelled the speculation.

All members of Rabri Devi’s family, including her son and party heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, accorded a warm welcome to the chief minister thus keeping aside the political acrimony. Once Kumar took his seat, Chirag Paswan, who had arrived a little earlier, greeted him by touching his feet. Those who might have been taken in by Chirag’s relentless attacks on the JD(U) leader, an old associate of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, could hardly believe their eyes. Chirag’s rebellion ahead of the 2020 assembly polls has been singularly blamed by the JD(U) for its losses at the hustings. Paswan junior has been relentless in his attacks on the CM, his own political isolation notwithstanding. But it remained an occasion for bonhomie that belied the political equations normally on display in Bihar.

Kumar partook of the delicacies on offer, seated alongside Prasad’s maverick elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, in a gesture of avuncular forgiveness for the latter’s many personal jibes. Seated at a close distance were other members of Prasad’s family, including eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti. The RJD supremo’s progenies may not be on the best of terms with each other but for the time being, they seemed to have left all behind.

With the release of their ailed and ageing father from jail still not in sight, the siblings were clearly drawing some comfort in the company of Kumar whom they have all called “chacha” (uncle). Predictably, the social media was busy speculating if this was a sign of yet another political volte-face by Kumar. The chief minister’s presence at Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding a few years ago, when he was photographed hugging Prasad warmly, had led to similar predictions which, however, did not turn out to be correct.

Be that as it may, Kumar, who hosted an Iftar himself last week and has been making it a point to attend similar feasts organised by political peers, seems to have sent out a message loud and clear. His old ties with the BJP notwithstanding, the Bihar CM has kept the politics of Hindutva at an arm’s distance and his gesture, less than 24 hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to the state, could not have been more loaded with meaning.