Our Correspondent / PATNA
Close on the heels of Nitish Kumar tendering resignation as Bihar Chief Minister, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav today lashed out at his rival-turned-friend and said that the JD-U chief saying later is involved in a murder case. Lalu Prasad raked up a 1991 poll-related violence which resulted in death of one person and in which Nitish Kumar is an “accused”.
“I talked with Nitish ji last night and asked him to clear all the misunderstandings. We talked for 40 minutes and he did not mention about his resignation for once. He also advised me to clarify the corruption charges through media. Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused in a murder and an Arms Act case under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. He also declared this in elections affidavit. Nitish knew that if he would ask Tejashwi to resign then his crime will be exposed,” Lalu told media.
“This is zero tolerance of my younger brother. This is why he stepped down. When a reporter asked Nitish if he would take the BJP’s support to form a government, then he did not deny. I am sad that he resigned. I asked him to not resign,” he added.
The RJD chief further called for appointment of a new chief minister.
“This is a grand alliance and the Chief Minister has resigned. Though we have a claim, but a meeting of the RJD, the JD(U) and the Congress MLAs should be called to elect a new chief minister,” he said.
Lalu further accused Nitish to have been hand-in-glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) all this while.
“Nitish is hand-in-glove with the BJP, and the RSS. What a setting! Minutes after he resigned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to congratulate him,” he said.
Bihar saw a major turn of events on Wednesday evening when Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, instead of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, as was being speculated and expected.
Nitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and confirmed it to the media even as he emerged after meeting him.
“The Governor has accepted my resignation. I did everything a chief of a party in alliance should do. I myself have given away the post. Now, you will have to wait and see what happens next,” he said.
He said that Nitish had not sought the resignation of his son Tejashwi. “In my one on one meeting with Nitish Kumar he never sought Tejashwi’s resignation,” Mr Yadav told reporters in Patna shortly after the news of Mr Kumar’s resignation went viral in the media. The former Bihar Chief Minister said, the demand for an “explanation” from his son (Tejashwi) came only from a spokesman of JD-U and asserted there was no logic in responding to that – as “that spokesman is neither a police or CBI official”.