Patna: A day after the RJD passed a resolution to contest the 2020 Assembly election projecting Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate, he said the people of Bihar will decide his fate.
The leader of Opposition in the Assembly also mocked chief minister Nitish Kumar.
"Forget the post of Prime Minister; I am simply asking JDU leaders that will the NDA project Nitish Kumar as CM candidate in the next Assembly election? Will Nitish ji break ties with the BJP if he is not projected as the CM candidate? When I was with Nitishji I always used to say that he has all the qualities to become PM but he himself said that he was not in the race," Tejashwi said.
He asked if the JDU would "have the guts to contest the election separately" if the BJP does not project Nitish as the CM face.
"When media asked about the Gujarat election, Nitish ji said the BJP will win; then why is the JDU contesting from 50 seats there?" Tejashwi asked. "Does he think the people are fools? Nitish's JDU did not contest the Uttar Pradesh poll to help the BJP and contested the Delhi municipal poll to cut AAP votes, which ultimately benefited BJP.
"During the presidential poll, Nitish ji said Meira Kumar was fielded (by the national Opposition) to lose the election," Tejashwi added. "Going by his own logic, why is the JDU contesting the Gujarat election? Is Nitishji going to lose in Gujarat? That's why I had said that Nitish ji is not chief minister but cheat minister."
In response, the JDU alleged nepotism in Lalu Prasad's party.
"The RJD has announced Tejashwi as CM face because it is a family party and not a political party," said JDU spokesperson Neeraj Kumar. "A corruption case convict is the president of the party and a tainted person (read Tejashwi) becomes the leader of the party. Now senior leaders like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagadanand Singh and Abdul Bari Siddiqui have to chant Tejashwi's name all the time. As far as the Gujarat election is concerned, the JDU has contested in past as well. He should be more bothered about the RJD and his own future instead of thinking about the JDU."
