News Analysis India

Tag: Tejashwi Yadav

  • Tejashwi makes fresh bid to fish in NDA’s troubled waters as he questions ramped up security in state BJP offices

    By PTI

    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday made a fresh attempt at fishing in the NDA’s troubled waters in Bihar by questioning the manner in which security for the BJP’s leaders and offices were ramped up in the state in the wake of violent protests against ‘Agnipath’ scheme.

    The leader of the opposition came out with a series of tweets accusing BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi, MPs and MLAs, who have been given “Y” category security, of having no faith in their “own double engine government” but staying in a coalition with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) “just for the sake of power”.

    Yadav also alleged that deployment of central paramilitary forces at BJP offices was made “without taking the state government into confidence” and was tantamount to “assault on the federal structure”.

    BJP offices were torched in more than one districts and houses and cars of Renu Devi, besides party’s state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal and a couple of other MLAs were vandalised during the protests against ‘Agnipath’, the new scheme of recruitment in the armed forces.

    The BJP was obviously flabbergasted by the scale and intensity of the protests and contention of the JD(U) that these were “spontaneous” and not part of a “planned conspiracy” as suggested by the saffron party, had placed the ties between the two parties under strain.

    There have been rumours, neither confirmed nor denied by leaders of the JD(U) or the administration, that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre decided to give “Y” category security to 10 Bihar leaders and deploy personnel of central paramilitary forces at party offices, including the state headquarters here, without consulting the chief minister who also holds the home portfolio.

    Notably, Kumar himself has so far not spoken about ‘Agnipath’, which has come in for criticism by his close aides like JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Prasad Singh and parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha.

    However, a visit to his residence recently by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later also declared that the chief minister was NDA’s undisputed leader in Bihar and will complete his five-year-term, was seen as an assuaging tactic by the central BJP leadership which may not like the JD(U), currently its largest ally in the country, to be estranged at this point.

    A softening of stance on part of the JD(U) was apparent during the recently concluded monsoon session of the assembly and ministers belonging to the party criticised, in unison with their BJP colleagues, the opposition’s ruckus over ‘Agnipath’.

    Nonetheless, Yadav, who has been buoyant over his party becoming the single largest group with four MLAs of the AIMIM joining the RJD, has indicated that he will not be sitting on his laurels and continue to keep the ruling NDA, whom he has repeatedly accused of achieving power “through backdoor”, on its toes.

    “The Bihar government should tell us whether the police is so incompetent so as to warrant deployment of central forces at BJP offices?”, tweeted Yadav, in a deft attempt to provoke the JD(U).

    “Did the Centre not attack the federal structure by deploying central forces without taking the state government into confidence,” he asked.

    “BJP leaders in Bihar have taken ‘Y’ category security because they do not trust their own double engine government in the state, the home department here and the police.

    Are these shameless (begairat) and corrupt (bhrasht) people in power just to loot the people?”, asked the former Deputy CM in yet another tweet.

    The term “double engine” is used by BJP leaders to refer to the party being in power at the Centre as well as in a state.

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  • ‘No census in Bihar till caste count’, threatens RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Bihar’s main opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has threatened not to allow any census in the state unless head count of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was conducted in the state along with those from the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes.

    Raising the old demand of caste based census in the state, RJD’s defacto supremo accused the BJP of having mindset of ‘anti-social justice’ and blamed Union MoS Home Nityanand Rai and the saffron party for ignoring the unanimous demand of the state’s political parties.

    He alleged that the BJP displayed an ‘anti-social justice’ mindset by getting Union Minister Nityanand Rai, incidentally an OBC from Bihar, to give a written statement in the parliament that the government will not take up a head count of social groups other than Dalits and Tribals in Bihar.

    “The proposal was sent to the centre after passed by both Houses of the state legislature twice. But Rai in his written reply expressed the centre’s inability to concede the demand of caste census in Bihar,” he added.

    Nityanand Rai, the BJP MP from Ujiyarpur Lok Sabha constituency, is being projected as one of the front runners of probable contenders for the chief minister’s post in the case BJP was given an opportunity after Nitish’s exit.

    Moreover, Rai belongs to the same Yadav community, which RJD’s chief ministerial candidate belonged to.

    Taking a swipe at CM Nitish Kumar, the RJD leader said that Nitish had in February this year said that the process would be initiated after holding deliberations with senior leaders of all political parties. However, the matter was thrown to the cold storage, he added.

    He said the CM had agreed to conduct the caste census from its own resources after formal denial  by the union government. Both BJP and JDU strongly countered the RJD’s allegation and said that he should know the nuances of the contentious issue.

    BJP leader and agriculture minister Amrendra Pratap Singh said Tejashwi lacked proper information. “Nityanand Rai has nothing to do with the caste based census,” the BJP minister said. “This is not a simple issue, which can be taken so lightly. It needs a good deal of exercise. There is no doubt when Nitish Kumar has made it clear that the caste census will be done in the state. He should have patience,” JDU MLC Neeraj Kumar said.

  • Heard about the wedding, congrats nonetheless: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to Tejashwi Yadav

    By PTI

    PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday congratulated his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav upon the latter’s marriage, subtly expressing disappointment over not being informed, let alone being invited.

    In a short but carefully worded congratulatory statement, Kumar stressed the fact that he heard about the wedding of Yadav, now the leader of the opposition, in “news media”.

    Yadav, who tied the knot in Delhi, is the younger son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Kumar’s arch rival.

    Prasad and Kumar have known each other since the JP movement of 1974 when both had cut their political teeth as student leaders.

    Fierce political rivalry notwithstanding, the two have often been to each other’s place on special occasions.

    People here still remember the warm embrace in which they held each other when Kumar attended the wedding of Prasad’s elder son three and a half years ago.

  • Tejashwi bats for benefits, ex-gratia to farmers’ kin  

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of Opposition in Bihar, on Sunday said that merely announcing rollback of three contentious farm laws in the run-up to Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh is not enough.“This announcement, made just ahead of Assembly polls in UP, is not going to assuage pains of the families of the martyrs (farmers), who sacrificed their lives against the government’s ego and unilateralism in the form of farm laws,” he remarked. 

    The RJD leader demanded an ex-gratia of Rs  25 lakh and jobs in government departments to each bereaved family. He also took a jibe at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, holding him equally responsible for supporting the farm laws and hardships faced by the farmers during agitation. He said Nitish Kumar should atone the sin he had committed by supporting the farm laws, by granting an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the families of deceased farmers.

    Tejashwi also demanded immediate withdrawal of the cases lodged against farmers during the agitation against the farm laws. “The Central government should immediately withdraw all cases lodged against farmers and their leaders,” he said and added that the government must give a guarantee of MSP to the farmers.

  • RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav attacks Nitish Kumar government over murders in Bihar

    By PTI

    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, accusing it of “protecting” the alleged perpetrators of a couple of high-profile murders that took place in the state in the last couple of days.

    Addressing a press conference here, the leader of the opposition sought to place the government in the dock over the killing of an RTI activist cum freelance journalist in Madhubani and the husband of a district councillor in Purnea, the latter incident being blamed on the close relative of a minister.

    Rintu Singh, whose wife is a member of the Zila Parishad in Purnea, was shot dead by unidentified assailants on Friday night, and bereaved family members have named a nephew of minister Lesi Singh as the prime accused.

    Yadav challenged the government to cull out the “call details record of Lesi Singh and the SHO of the police station concerned”, alleging that the same would point towards the involvement of the cabinet member herself.

    He also blamed the “health sector mafia” in the state for the murder of Buddhinath Jha alias Avinash Jha, who had gone missing a few days ago and whose charred body was recovered from a secluded spot in Benipatti police station area of Madhubani on Friday night.

    Family members of Jha have lodged an FIR, alleging that the deceased had exposed many hospitals and nursing homes running illegally in the district and that those involved in the businesses had got him kidnapped and murdered.

    The RJD leader also blamed the government for the hooch tragedies that claimed more than 40 lives in West Champaran, Gopalganj, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur districts around Deepawali, alleging that illicit liquor business in the dry state was “thriving, with full support of political leaders in the ruling coalition and the administration”.

    “An impartial probe into all such crimes may land all legislators of the ruling NDA behind bars. They will end up being brought in prison vans to attend sessions of the House,” Yadav said with a rhetorical flourish.

  • Bypoll lessons: Big crowds at rallies hardly convert into votes in Bihar

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Surging crowds at election rallies, especially in states like Bihar, are hardly a barometer of political temperature.

    It became clear when the results of the Assembly by-elections to Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur came on Nov 2. 

    Opposition RJD and Congress star campaigners had drawn huge crowds. However, this did not convert into votes.  

    RJD chief Lalu Prasad campaigned in the bypolls after a gap of about six years.

    The result: the RJD candidate from Kusheshwar Asthan was defeated by the ruling JD-U by a margin of more than 12,000 votes. In Tarapur too, the JD-U won.

    Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others also campaigned for three days. In both constituencies, the Congress candidates forfeited their deposits. 

    The most striking similarity among Bihar’s three eligible bachelor politicians — Chirag Paswan, Tejashwi Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar — is that they draw crowds, but don’t bring in votes. 

    “Theirs is a model of hurling loud accusations. Secondly, they are largely inaccessible to the common people,” said an observer.

    Sociologist Nirmal Kumar says states like Bihar, West Bengal and UP where you have a vast population suffering in poverty, the people generally go out to listen to big politicians at their rallies. 

    “Lalu, his son Tejashwi, Chirag Paswan, Kanhaiya Kumar and CM Nitish Kumar did well in campaigning. Even when Lalu threatened to do an ‘immersion’ (visarjan) of the Nitish government in the bypolls, Nitish simply countered by a well thought-after line: “He (Lalu) can do nothing except getting me killed, when he wants.” 

    Nitish’s one-liner refreshed the people’s memories about the 15-year reign of ‘jungle raj’ of Lalu-Rabri,” says Arun Kumar Pandey, a political analyst.

    Meanwhile, Nitish on Tuesday asserted that results of the just-concluded by-elections won by his JD(U), were a resounding rejection of the RJD founded and headed by his arch-rival Lalu Prasad who betrayed arrogance and a lack of humility.

    Kumar was talking to reporters at the state headquarters of the JD(U) where he joined a function organised to felicitate the victorious debutants Ganesh Bharti and Rajiv Kumar Singh who respectively retained for the party Kusheshwar Asthan (SC) and Tarapur assembly constituencies.

    “The by-polls were a sad occasion for us as these were necessitated by the deaths of our sitting MLAs. I have always held that people’s will is supreme. They have reposed their trust in us. We will continue serving them as long as the trust continues,” Kumar said.

    For Kumar, the by-poll outcome has come as a big relief, a year after his party was drubbed in the assembly polls though he returned as the chief minister, enjoying full support of allies.

    “Our candidates belonged to the JD(U). But the entire NDA backed them solidly, down to the grassroots level,” said Kumar.

    Kumar was also asked about the failure of Prasad, who had plunged into campaign himself, despite old age and ill-health, and claimed that the RJD’s victory in the by-polls would trigger a “stampede” in the NDA and pave way for a change of guard.

    ‘What can I say about them? What type of language did they use during the elections? There lies the difference. We believe in the supremacy of people. They (Prasad and his family) believe in lording over everybody else. People have made their preference clear, though,” Kumar said.

    Prasad, who had been the chief minister himself in the 1990s, was succeeded by his homemaker wife Rabri Devi when a charge-sheet in the fodder scam caused him to step down.

    His wife occupied the top post for eight years until being voted out of power in 2005.

    Convicted in a number of fodder scam cases, Prasad now stand disqualified from contesting elections himself though his younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav has been repeatedly called the “chief ministerial” candidate of the RJD.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • RJD’s Tejashwi accuses Centre of step-motherly treatment to J’khand in fund disbursement

    By PTI

    JHARKHAND: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav accused the Centre of meting out “step-motherly treatment” to Jharkhand in disbursement of funds, which is leading to “hindering the development process” in the state.

    The leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly also alleged that ever since non-BJP forces came to power in Jharkhand under the leadership of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the “central government did not allocate development funds as much as it did during the saffron party’s regime in the state”.

    “This indicates the biased approach of the Narendra Modi government towards the BJP-ruled states. We will certainly fight against any sort of step-motherly treatment to Jharkhand,” he said while addressing a rally in Chhatarpur in Palamu district.

    Describing the Rashtriya Janata Dal as his mother, Yadav said he cannot compromise with the party’s honour and attended the “Tejashwi aap ke dwar” (Tejashwi at your doorstep) programme in Chhatarpur despite ensuing by-elections to two assembly seats in Bihar.

    He said the RJD is committed to secularism and social justice, and will never compromise with these principles.

    Yadav said Jharkhand is also his home and the party will organise a two-day programme every month to regain its strength in the state.

    “Those who think that the RJD has a weak base in Jharkhand are in illusion,” he said. His comment came after Jharkhand Finance Minister and Congress leader Rameshwar Oraon had recently said the RJD has a “negligible presence in the state, and there was no need to pay attention to it”.

    Attacking the BJP on rising fuel prices, he said the Centre has “failed” to control it, while the saffron party criticised the UPA government before 2014 on the same issue.

    Today is the auspicious day for Bihar and Jharkhand as RJD president Lalu Prasad returned to Patna from where imprisonment in fodder scam cases had kept him away for three years.

    “Lalu ji is like Bholenath (Lord Shiva) and he is a leader of poor people. He forgives even his opponents but they betrayed him. A conspiracy was hatched against him by the BJP but he continued to fight for farmers, labourers and poor people,” Tejashwi claimed.

    During the programme, former RJD MP Ghuran Ram said Tejashwi would be a strong and prospective prime ministerial candidate.

  • RJD victory in by-polls could result in ‘khela’ in Bihar: Tejashwi Yadav

    By PTI

    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday claimed that his party’s victory in by-polls to two assembly segments in Bihar would lead to a political upheaval in the state where the NDA is running a government with a slender majority.

    Yadav, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, made remarks to the effect while campaigning for the RJD candidate in Tarapur assembly constituency in Munger district.

    “If we are blessed with a victory here (Tarapur) and in Kusheshwar Asthan, you could see a khela (upset) in a few months’ time,” said Yadav at an election rally, apparently drawing inspiration from the ‘Khela hobe’ (game will happen) slogan coined by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in adjacent West Bengal ahead of the high-voltage assembly polls held a few months ago.

    The RJD had bagged 75 seats in the assembly polls held last year, one more than the BJP’s tally, and significantly higher than that of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) which could win less than 50.

    Nonetheless, in the 243-strong assembly, the NDA which also included a couple of smaller parties got a slender majority.

    The RJD-headed five-party Grand Alliance which included the Congress and the Left, fell short of the magic mark by about 10 seats, for which the opposition coalition has been blaming ‘manipulations’ in tightly contested seats.

    Yadav, who has been a former deputy CM, also sought to target the Nitish Kumar government for the death of JD(U) MLA Mewa Lal Chaudhary, whose demise has led to the by-poll in Tarapur.

    “It is wrong to say that COVID-19 killed the MLA. A failed healthcare system is responsible for his death and the buck stops with Nitish Kumar who has been ruling the state for 16 years,” said the RJD leader who had served as Kumar’s deputy for a little about two years, until the JD(U) leader’s abrupt return to the NDA.

    The younger son and heir apparent of RJD boss Lalu Prasad asserted that in the reserved seat of Kusheshwar Asthan, the death of JD(U) MLA Shashi Bhushan Hazari was, similarly, a result of poor healthcare facilities in the state.

    He asked, “Why else would he have to be rushed to Delhi for the treatment of something so common like hepatitis?” Although the RJD has been sounding confident of wresting the two seats from the JD(U), it faces a challenge in the form of the Congress which has thrown its hat in the ring in both constituencies.

    The allies run the risk of cutting into each other’s votes which could benefit the JD(U) candidate.

    The RJD is also mortified by Lalu Prasad’s elder son throwing a tantrum and announcing that he would follow the ‘coalition dharma’ in his own way, by supporting his father’s party in Tarapur but the Congress in Kusheshwar Asthan.

    Voting is scheduled for both seats on October 30.

  • Tej Pratap Yadav alleges Lalu being held captive in Delhi, Tejashwi dismisses claim

    By PTI

    PATNA: RJD president Lalu Prasad’s maverick elder son Tej Pratap Yadav has caused a flutter with the claim that his father was being held “captive” and prevented from returning to Bihar despite having been released from jail.

    Yadav, who is known for shooting from the hip, made the comment on Saturday when he said the captors of his father, who is convalescing in Delhi since release from Ranchi jail a few months ago, were “four or five people” he did not wish to name.

    Yadav, who is in his late 70s and suffers from multiple ailments, had been awarded sentences by a special CBI court in fodder scam cases.

    Since his release from jail on bail, he has been putting up at his Delhi residence, staying away from the daily humdrum of politics.

    Nonetheless, he has addressed RJD workers over video conferences on a couple of occasions.

    The BJP predictably latched on to Tej Pratap Yadav’s utterances, insisting that the elder sibling was hinting at Tejashwi, his younger brother and the heir apparent to Prasad.

    Party spokesmen Nikhil Anand and Arvind Kumar Singh came out with statements asserting that political differences notwithstanding they had “immense respect” for Prasad and demanding that Tejashwi come clean on the issue.

    Tejashwi, who incidentally returned from the national capital on Sunday morning, was mobbed by journalists seeking his take on yet another embarrassment thrown at him by his elder sibling.

    The confident 32-year-old dismissed the contention with disdain asserting that “to say Lalu is bandhak (in captivity) simply does not go with his personality. He is a man who has served as the chief minister of Bihar and the country’s railway minister. He was the one who had got L K Advani arrested”.

    Tejashwi’s comment was a reference to Yadav’s tenure as CM when he had famously got the BJP stalwart arrested at Samastipur, causing the Ayodhya Rath Yatra to stop.

    Notably, both brothers had made their debut together in the 2015 assembly polls.

    However, Tejashwi, known to be the favourite of his father, was installed as the deputy CM in the Nitish Kumar government while the elder brother had to be content with a cabinet berth.

    After Kumar parted ways with the RJD, Tejashwi became the leader of the opposition while the elder sibling alternated between throwing tantrums and swearing full support to the younger brother whom he frequently likens to Mahabharata character Arjuna while calling himself Krishna, the warrior prince’s charioteer-cum-counsel.

    The latest showdown came barely a month ago when, angered over the removal of a trusted aide from the post of the RJD students’ wing chief, Tej Pratap Yadav reacted by floating a parallel outfit.

    He also lashed out at state RJD chief Jagadanand Singh, seen as Tejashwi’s man, referring to him as ‘Hitler’.

    The mercurial leader’s outrage received thumbs down from the party supremo himself who lauded Singh for being a “disciplinarian” when he addressed RJD workers a few days later.

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  • Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar to host ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ on October 3

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In the NITI Aayog report of the Indian Public Health Standards -2012 that was brought in the public domain with findings of 15 states in the country, including Jharkhand, Bihar ranked the worst 

    With only 6 beds per 1 lakh population in Bihar’s district hospitals, the state was placed at the bottom of the ranking report of the NITI Aayog .

    The findings of NITI Aayog has intensified the political pressure against the ruling NDA government by the opposition.

    Taking this issue to the public domain, opposition party leader Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, for the first time in his entire political career, is set to host a program called ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ on October 3 in Patna.

    ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ is aimed to make a detailed blueprint for revamping healthcare whenever his party comes in power.

    Aimed at knowing the problems and causes behind the status of state so far on public health standards, Tejashwi will interact with the people of the medical fraternity and other experts on healthcare through the program.

    Taunting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the release of the NITI Aayog report, Yadav said, “Congratulation to CM Nitish Kumar ji for making Bihar number one from the bottom!”

    But the BJP rejected the report of NITI Aayog saying the Aayog has always shown a preoccupied thought about Bihar.

    What came as a shock for Bihar is that its neighbouring state Jharkhand was placed above it, in terms of beds available per 1 lakh.  As per the report, Jharkhand has 9 beds in district hospitals per 1 lakh population.

    Among the 15 states, MP and Chhatisgarh have topped with 20 beds in their district hospitals per 1 lakh population.

    “Bihar which has elected 39 MPs out of 40 by the NDA and has doubled the engine government but the state is at the worst-with 6 beds per 1 lakh! Shameful to the state health minister, who runs away whenever he is asked to reply over this”, Tejashwi Yadav taunted on Friday.

    He said: “I would interact with the medical fraternity of Bihar and other healthcare experts to have a ground-based real sense of difficulties that medical practitioners and medicos also have to face in the state and how medical infrastructures and facilities can be improved to the level of easy accessibility with all facilities to the people”.

    Meanwhile, health minister Mangal Pandey after coming under fire by the opposition over the NITI Aayog report, said that health services in the state are identified by quality, with the quality of government hospitals and other health institutions improved. But Pandey didn’t say anything on the report of NITI Aayog directly and avoided the media queries.

    But a senior leader of BJP and MLA from Barh Gyanendra Singh Gyanu questioned the report of NITI Aayog and said that the Aayog has always shown its negative and preoccupied impression about Bihar. He said that status shown in the report was the status around 15 years ago during the rule of the Lalu-Rabri regime in the state.