Patna: Tejashwi Prasad Yadav rued that his former boss Nitish Kumar did not wish him on his 28th birthday on Thursday, and said the chief minister "does not want to show his face to me".
The former deputy chief minister regretted that Nitish, whom he used to address as chacha (uncle), did not wish him. "Politics should be kept aside during birthdays, but in today's world everything has become personalised," Tejashwi said after cutting a cake at his 5 Deshratna Marg bungalow. "It is sad that Nitish did not wish me on my birthday."
Governor Satya Pal Malik did call up Tejashwi to wish him. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also called Tejashwi when the RJD leader was flying to New Delhi later in the day. Tejashwi called Rahul back after landing.
But there had been no word from Nitish. A day ago, Nitish had tweeted birthday wishes to senior BJP leader L.K. Advani. There was one more tweet after that, where he lauded the Centre for demonetisation, which, he claimed, had a major effect on black money, but he had not tweeted a word on Tejashwi till late in the afternoon.
"The way Nitish ji switched sides to the BJP, he must be feeling guilty and maybe that's why he did not wish me," Tejashwi said. "I have also noticed that Nitishji does not attend programmes where we are present. He does not want to show his face to me and the people of the state."
This, Tejashwi said, should not be the norm.
"We attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi over our ideological differences, but on his birthday I and my father always greet him," he said.
With him at the official bungalow were his elder brother and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav, RJD state unit president Ram Chandra Purbey and many party MLAs and youth leaders.
A 28-pound cake was cut at 5 Deshratna Marg. That apart, the RJD youth wing planted 28 saplings dedicating their leader's birthday to protecting the environment. Over 500 people had gathered to wish Tejashwi with a bouquet.
There had been another round of cake cutting, with family members at 10 Circular Road, at the stroke of midnight. Tej Pratap posted some photographs of that on his Twitter handle.
One showed Tejashwi touching his elder brother's feet and another showed Tej Pratap feeding Tejashwi a cake.
On Thursday morning, Lalu tweeted: "Happy Birthday My Boy, Keep fighting & rooting out inequality & injustice."
Patna district RJD chief Devmuni Singh Yadav and his supporters put a garland weighing 28kg around Tejashwi's neck. Purbey praised Tejashwi as a mature leader and claimed that the 2020 Assembly election would be contested under his guidance.
"Tejashwi would be the next chief minister of the state and we are sure of forming the government in 2020," Purbey declared.
After spending time with party workers, Tejashwi left for Delhi in the afternoon.
