PATNA, Oct 25: Former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav on Saturday asserted that his younger brother Tejashwi, whom the INDIA bloc has named chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls, was yet to come out of the shadow of their father Lalu Prasad.The Hasanpur MLA, who has floated Janshakti Janata Dal after being expelled from RJD, was responding to queries from journalists about his more famous younger sibling being called “Jan Nayak” (hero of the people) by enthusiastic supporters.“Jan Nayak is an epithet associated with giants like Ram Manohar Lohia and Karpoori Thakur. Even Lalu Prasad fits the bill. But Tejashwi owes his standing to Lalu Prasad. The day he makes a mark for himself, I will be the first to call him a Jan Nayak,” he replied.Yadav, who is now trying to wrest back Mahua, the seat from which he made his debut a decade ago, stuck to the stand that after elections, he would not return to his father’s party nor would he be a part of any other political formation.He also exuded confidence that he faced “no contest” in Mahua, where he claims credit for the establishment of a medical college and promises to set up “an international stadium that would host a cricket match between India and Pakistan”.The RJD has given a ticket to Mukesh Raushan, sitting MLA from Mahua, who is a close aide of Tejashwi Yadav.
TEJASHWI PROMISES DEVELOPMENT
INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said he would make Bihar a leading state in the country by bringing in investments and setting up factories, if the opposition coalition is voted to power.Addressing back-to-back rallies in Parbatta and Alauli in Khagaria district and Shahpur in Bhojpur district, Yadav said he was fighting the elections not just to form a government but to build the state.
“We need to make Bihar number one, for which there is a need to bring investments, promote education and ensure proper health facilities,” he said.Yadav criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming that the senior BJP leader has said that factories cannot be set up in Bihar because there is a dearth of land.
“We will set up factories in the state and bring investment to take Bihar on the development trajectory,” he said.He claimed the government led by PM Modi at the Centre has not even set up a needle factory in Bihar.
“He comes here only to defraud the people of the state. The PM sets up factories in Gujarat and seeks votes in Bihar,” he alleged.
Taking on the prohibition policy of the Nitish Kumar government, Yadav claimed the restrictions on the sale of liquor are just in name.“While the administration is allowing home delivery of liquor for affluent sections of society, the poor, including women, are harassed through late-night raids. On the other side, rats are drinking thousands of litres of liquor in police stations,” he said, pointing to the allegations of alcohol “vanishing” after being seized.He charged PM Modi and Shah of “hijacking” CM Kumar, who, he claimed, “is incapable of leading Bihar anymore”, asserting that the time for change has come.Yadav said if the INDIA bloc is voted to power, a law will be enacted within 20 days to provide government jobs to every family, and the recruitments would be made in 20 months.Yadav also reiterated his promise of regularising the services of contractual workers and community mobilisers alongside “giving the annual sum of Rs 30,000 to women in a single instalment within a few weeks after our government is formed”. (PTI)
