India News | Heated Exchange Between Tejashwi, NDA Leaders in Bihar Assembly

Patna, Mar 4 (PTI) The Bihar assembly witnessed a heated exchange on Tuesday between the leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav and members of the ruling NDA, over functioning of the Nitish Kumar government.

Yadav, who was participating in a discussion on the governor's address to a joint session of the bicameral legislature, made a scathing attack on the state government.

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"'Sarkar khatara, system khatara, mukhyamantri thaka hara, aadmi ghoom raha mara mara' (the government is like a rickety old car, the system is defunct, the CM is a spent force and the people are distraught,” asserted Yadav.

Taking potshots at leaders of both BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), he reminded Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary of their roots in what is now called the INDIA bloc.

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Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, who is a senior JD(U) leader, rose to say, "I admit having been in the Congress. But the leader of the opposition has said a lot about efforts made by his father (RJD president Lalu Prasad) to set right the wrongs committed by the past governments. In effect, he has attacked the Congress, his own alliance partner".

To Yadav's charge that as a Congress minister Chaudhary had made a fortune till the party was voted out of power in 1990, the JD(U) leader replied, "I have been your cabinet colleague, too. I always do my job. It is some other people who use power to build a fortune".

The allusion was to numerous corruption cases against the RJD supremo and his family members.

However, an unfazed Yadav trained his guns at Samrat Choudhary, a BJP leader whom the former had preceded as the deputy chief minister.

"You are a counterfeit BJP man. It is your fellow Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha who is the real deal. How many years have it been since you joined the party? Have you ever visited Nagpur (headquarters of the RSS)?,” asked Yadav.

A visibly irritated Choudhary shot back, saying "you speak about what bad things your father used to say about all those with whom he joined hands at a later stage".

"And don't try to remind me of too many things. I also do remember having been sent to jail by your father,” said Choudhary without elaborating.

BJP sources, however, could not recall any instance of Choudhary, who held a cabinet berth in the government headed by Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, having ended up behind bars.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)