Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is under tremendous pressure from his party, the Janata Dal United (JD-U), as well as the opposition, to sack his deputy Tejashwi Yadav who has been named an accused in a corruption case by India’s elite Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Tejashwi is younger son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad.
Adding to the pressure on the chief minister is the monsoon session of the Bihar state assembly, which begins on July 28.
The main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced plans to disrupt House proceedings if the deputy chief minister is allowed to attend the assembly.
“We will not allow the House to function if the deputy chief minister does not resign on his own or is not expelled from the cabinet,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has declared.
Kumar Modi has questioned the studied silence being maintained by Nitish over the issue, and alleged Tejashwi perhaps had the tacit support of the chief minister.
Modi who was the deputy chief minister in the previous NDA government dared the chief minister to sack his deputy and prove his much-hyped claim about zero tolerance on corruption.
The BJP backed by other opposition parties have been repeatedly attacking the chief minister for his alleged failure to go soft on his deputy.
Apart from the BJP, the chief minister has been facing pressures from his own party to act against his deputy who continues to be in his Cabinet despite being made a named accused in land-for-hotel scandal by the CBI which also raided his premises. Since the CBI raid, the JD-U has constantly asked Tejashwi to come clean on the allegations against him and give proof of his innocence to the masses but the latter has ignored.
As such, Tejashwi’s case has badly dented the image of the JD-U in general and the chief minister in particular.
Since holding office in 2005, the chief minister has never allowed any tainted minister to continue in his cabinet post.
He has previously forced at least four ministers to resign to prove his party is totally against corruption.
But this time the chief minister has appears helpless to act against his deputy, as the RJD has announced Tejashwi will not resign.
“There is no question of his resignation. The case is part of the political vendetta,” is how RJD chief Lalu Prasad has declared.
This has left the chief minister in an awkward situation as his failure to force his deputy to resign is giving the impression that he has compromised on the issue of corruption.
With the deadlock continuing for more than a fortnight, the fate of the ruling Grand Alliance now literally hangs in balance.
“It’s the responsibility of all to run the alliance,” chief minister Kumar told the media on Tuesday.
The RJD, JD-U and the Congress party are the partners in the ruling Bihar alliance.
