Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday expressed apprehensions that leaders of the current ruling alliance may be "hounded" by central probe agencies ahead of the 2024 elections. The young RJD leader, whose family is on the CBI-ED radar in a couple of cases, made the remark at a rally organized here by the Communist Party of India.
"You all know what is being done to Arvind Kejriwal", said Yadav, referring to the ED summons to the Delhi Chief Minister, who has refused to appear before the agency and demanded the withdrawal of the "illegal, politically motivated" notice. The RJD leader claimed his father and party supremo Lalu Prasad had joined hands with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last year, burying past differences, "in the interest of the country".
"The BJP cannot bear the sight of parties opposed to it, being in power anywhere. So, it has been toppling governments in state after state. It succeeded in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It was only in Bihar that its attempts backfired", alleged Yadav. The allusion was to the charge, by the chief minister's JD(U), that the BJP was trying to engineer a split in the party after having "conspired" to weaken it in a bid to gain the upper hand in Bihar where it has for decades played second fiddle to Nitish Kumar.
"The BJP depends on the Hindu versus Muslim binary for its political survival. In Bihar, we are rapidly fulfilling the promise of job creation and the Centre has, therefore, been compelled to imitate us by organizing Rozgar melas", claimed Yadav. "In sheer desperation, the BJP has been unleashing CBI and ED against its opponents. In the coming days, in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls, you may see these agencies in an overdrive in Bihar. But we must not lose our nerves", said the young RJD leader. The Deputy CM, who returned from a week-long tour of Japan, reached the venue an hour after the chief minister had left.
He seemed to be in agreement with his boss in hoping that the activities of INDIA coalition will pick up after assembly polls in five states were over, though unlike the JD(U) leader he refrained from criticizing the Congress' preoccupation with the elections.
