Bihar Congress leaders extend support to Lalu Yadav

Patna: While the JD(U) maintained a studied silence over CBI raids on Lalu Yadav’s family, the Congress party extended full support to RJD chief Lalu Yadav who remained in his Patna-based residence on Saturday, drawing a road map for future action.

Congress leaders, all four ministers from the state, met Lalu Yadav and assured him full support in the wake of the development.

“The BJP wants to bulldoze secular leaders but we will not let it happen. We are together and we will jointly fight against the BJP,” Congress state president Ashok Chaudhary said, before meeting Mr Yadav on Saturday. He added, “Everyone knows that Amit Shah is a tadipaar and how Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of this country.”

But neither the Congress nor the RJD made any comments about Nitish Kumar’s silence on the issue. Mr Kumar earlier instructed his party leaders, especially spokespersons, to refrain from commenting on the matter.

RJD insiders told this newspaper that Mr Yadav had already sent a message to Mr Kumar’s camp, saying his son and deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav would not resign.

Mr Yadav’s aggressive stance may create a further rift in the grand secular alliance as sources indicated that chief minister Nitish Kumar might ask Tejaswi to step down.

Mr Kumar is in Rajgir, some 70 kilometres away from Patna, where he had called an emergency meeting of officials and party leaders to discuss the issue. Sources say Mr Kumar would like to wait till CBI filed the chargesheet against Tejaswi Yadav.

Political observers pointed out that the grand secular alliance was formed in 2015 when Lalu Yadav was already a convict in the fodder scam.