Nitish Kumar could save his chair on couple of occasions only with Lalu Prasad's help: Tejashwi

Patna, Sep 27 (PTI) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, stating that he could save his chair on a couple of occasions only with the help of his father Lalu Prasad, against whom he allegedly used a cuss word.

Yadav, a former deputy CM who is currently the leader of the opposition, played a video clip of an NDA workers' meet held in Khagaria district earlier this week in which Kumar, who heads the JD(U), can be heard sneering at the RJD supremo for having "made his wife the chief minister when he was made to step down".

The 35-year-old leader took exception to Kumar allegedly uttering a cuss word for Prasad, and said "my father is elder to him. He claims to consider my father as a big brother (bade bhai) and this is the type of language he uses".

Referring to his party's two short-lived alliances with the JD(U), Yadav said, "What is the grouse that Nitish Kumar is nursing against my father? He could save his chair, on a couple of occasions, only with the help of my father." The young leader, who is leading the INDIA bloc charge for the upcoming assembly polls in the state, alleged "it is now clear that Nitish Kumar is not in a proper state of mind and no longer fit to govern the state. He has been hijacked by the BJP, his alliance partner, which is calling the shots".

Yadav was addressing a rally in the state capital, titled 'Karpoori Ati Pichhda Samvad', aimed at reaching out to the numerically powerful extremely backward classes (EBCs), of Bihar, by invoking the legacy of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur.

Underscoring that while breathing his last Thakur was "lying down with his head in my father's lap", he said the EBC stalwart's government was "brought down" by the Jana Sangh, the BJP's previous avatar.

"Social awakening may have forced the BJP to confer the Bharat Ratna on Karpoori Thakur, a demand we had been raising for years, but the fact remains that he was abused by them for introducing reservations for backward classes in Bihar," alleged the RJD leader.

Yadav added, "Unlike the BJP and its allies, which view the EBCs as a vote bank, we see you as a power bank. The one who gets your blessings gets to win." He claimed that the impressive turnout at the rally was "a clear signal that the EBCs have blessed us" and promised that if he came to power, the social segment will get "respect", an acronym he coined to denote "rozgar" (jobs), "education", "swasthya" (health care) and "palayan band" (an end to migration), among other things.

Yadav urged the EBCs not to get carried away by sops like Rs 10,000 disbursed among 75 lakh women beneficiaries of a scheme at a function on Friday, which was attended, through video conference, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The NDA is a copycat (nakalchi) which has been lifting our ideas, be it free power, a domicile policy or special assistance to women. I suspect that the money they gave yesterday is a loan they would ask you to repay if they win the polls. This is a far cry from what we promise," alleged Yadav.

He also urged the EBCs to be mindful of the "Ati Pichhda Nyay Sankalp", a list of 10 promises released earlier this week, in his presence, by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

"We have promised the EBCs reservations in government contracts of up to Rs 25 crore. We have also promised a rise in quotas in panchayats and municipal bodies. Besides, a law that protects the EBCs against atrocities has also been proposed," he said. PTI SUK NAC SOM