Nitish greedy, wants to remain in power till death: Lalu

Bhagalpur (Bihar), Sep 10: Targeting erstwhile alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav today said the state government must spell out details of every penny "embezzled" by a Bhagalpur-based NGO in Srijan scam case.

"Nitish government will have to give details of every penny that was embezzled by Srijan in the state's 'maha ghotala' (mega scam)," he said. The RJD chief exhorted the people who had gathered at a rally at Sandis compound here to register their protest over the Srijan scam by participating in "dharnas" to be held at every district headquarter town on September 12.

Lalu also wondered why FIRs were not registered against Nitish Kumar, Sushil Kumar Modi, Ashwini Choubey (Union minister) and others in the scam, which is nothing short of a 'maha ghotala'. Mounting a scathing attack on the chief minister, the RJD supremo said Nitish Kumar was not only a "Paltu Ram" (one who switches sides), but a greedy person who wants to remain in power till his death. "...I knew about his (Nitish's) character... He (Nitish) would not have become CM had I nursed 'putra-moh' despite having larger number of MLAs than that of JD(U)," he said.

Alleging that Nitish used to stay at the residence of one "Mishra" in Bhagalpur, Lalu questioned the credentials of the person. He said the Srijan scam would have been buried by now, had the media not highlighted it.

The former railway minister said that they (BJP-JD(U)) failed to defeat him (lalu), so they were now targeting his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Lalu said there was a deliberate attempt to hamper the Bhagalpur rally and that is why the CBI summoned him to Delhi.

"I am not afraid of Narendra Modi's empty threats, rather I will make BJP bite the dust even if I have to be hung by the neck," Lalu said. The RJD chief was accompanied by senior vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, his two sons -- Tejashwi and Tej Pratap -- and other senior leaders of the party.

Former deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav also trained his guns at the Bihar CM for his "failure to take action against such scams from the beginning". The CBI should conduct a fair probe and lodge FIRs against the CM, deputy CM, Union minister Giriraj Singh and Shahnawaz Hussain for hatching a conspiracy and destroying evidence, Tejashwi said.

The former deputy CM also accused Nitish of moral corruption besides indulging in political and social corruption by ditching minorities, scheduled castes and backward classes, who had given a mandate to the grand alliance.

PTI