This Article is From Mar 16, 2018

"Nitish Chacha, You Are 67, I Am 28, What Happened?"- By Tejashwi Yadav

(As told to NDTV.com's Manish Kumar)

It has been 48 hours since the astounding results of the by-elections in Gorakhpur and Bihar. Our RJD won big - which means I expect to be arrested any day now. Not only me, you will see now how the central government unleashes all the investigating agencies against leaders from the Samajwadi Party and BSP as punishment for their giant victory in Uttar Pradesh.

This ruling party doesn't have the support of the people anymore. The results of the by-elections this week in two states prove that decisively. But all the investigating agencies are there to be used as instruments of revenge and to intimidate opposition parties like ours from coming together ahead of the next general election.

Today, there is a report in the newspapers that the CBI's legal wing said there was no evidence to accuse Lalu-ji (my father) of corruption in the railways hotel case. But the CBI ignored its own lawyers' advice and filed an FIR, stating that he leased two railways hotels to a private company in exchange for a plot of land in Patna. Doesn't this show how the entire corruption case against my father is politically motivated? We have been saying this from Day One - that these corruption charges against Lalu-ji are a conspiracy formed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The CBI said I was part of that corrupt deal. I challenge them to file a chargesheet against me. Nine months after they talked of it, they still haven't done this.

Today, the TDP in Andhra Pradesh has walked out of the NDA. I hope the conscience of my chacha, Nitish Kumar, is awakened now as much as it was when he ended the alliance with us to tie-up with the BJP. Chacha, why are you silent on this exit of the TDP? I will keep raising this till you offer a comment.

Our party's achievement in the by-elections is a big deal. We won the Araria parliamentary seat; in the past, when Chacha and the BJP have been allies, they have won this seat. This time, the people rejected their partnership for the RJD. For the simple reason that there is so much anger against Chacha and his government - over his liquor ban, over the agrarian crisis, over the complete stopping of all construction because of an unfair crackdown on allegedly illegal sand mining.

I said it earlier this week and I repeat it now - Chacha, I am a 28-year-old bachcha. Kya hua in this election?

And yet, there is no time to enjoy this victory. I will start another yatra of Bihar to highlight our farmers' plight. I will play a tape of what Modi said during the last national and Bihar election making all sorts of promises of which he has kept zero. As for Chacha, everyday for the rest of his term, he will be humiliated and kept in his place by the BJP.

All this - the TDP exit from the NDA, the by-election results - mean it's time for senior leaders from all parties to meet and formalize a strategy for 2019. Who should be the leader of the alliance can be decided later. I feel Rahul Gandhi is capable of being an effective Prime Minister but that is not the issue right now.



(Tejashwi Yadav is leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly and RJD's chief ministerial candidate for 2020.)

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