Lalu claims Nitish wanted him to ignore media reports

On Thursday, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav claimed that he had not only spoken to Nitish Kumar over media reports saying he wanted his deputy Tejashwi Yadav to resign but had also asked Tejashwi Yadav to call on Nitish Kumar to clear the air.

But, Lalu claimed, the Bihar chief minister denied media reports and asked him not to take media reports seriously. Yesterday, even Tejashwi Yadav had claimed that during his meeting with Nitish Kumar, the Bihar CM had not asked him to quit; that he had merely asked him to clarify his position through the media. “There is no hurry”, the CM had said, Yadav Jr had recalled.

The RJD chief made the following points:

• I sent Tejashwi to Nitish a few days ago to know what’s the matter. Nitish told him not to worry about speculative media reports. Thereafter, I called him up. Speaking over phone, he feigned ignorance over the media reports. He reiterated that he didn’t want his resignation.
• The match was already fixed between the BJP and Nitish Kumar.
• Nitish Kumar is an opportunist. He immediately swings towards where he sees power. We had got mandate against the RSS and BJP. During the 2015 state assembly elections, we had forced them to leave Bihar empty handed.
• Nitish has not only cheated on people of Bihar, but backstabbed them.
• I’ll go to the Supreme Court and appeal that as the single largest party, the RJD wasn’t invited first to form the government.
• Nitish is Bhasmasura --a demon in Hindu mythology -- who got the boon to burn up and turn into ashes anyone by merely touching the head.

Blaming the media for playing the tune dictated by the BJP, the RJD chief advised the media to learn from American media. “They don’t fear Trump. But in this country, we have a super editor, Amit Shah. He decides the media’s agenda in this country and even owners and editors bow to him,” he added.