Patna: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar won the trust vote in the assembly comfortably on July 28 even as his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav delivered a no-holds-barred speech in the House, accusing him of “betrayal”.
While 131 MLAs voted for Nitish, the RJD-led opposition polled 108 votes. The council of ministers of the NDA coalition would be sworn in on July 29 afternoon.
Tejashwi told Nitish: “Aapko chacha kehta tha, aapne mere saath aisa kiya. Aapko sharm nahi aayee? (I used to call you uncle and this is what you did to me. Aren’t you ashamed).”
In his first appearance in the assembly as leader of the opposition — less than 36 hours after he was unseated as deputy CM — the former Ranji cricketer devoted a major part of his 45-minute speech to pan his ex-boss, accusing him of plotting a “secret gameplan” to return to BJP. “Didn’t you know my father (Lalu) was a convict in fodder scam when you allied with us for 2015 assembly election? You used me as a pawn in your gameplan,” Tejashwi said, addressing Nitish.
The RJD leader reminded Nitish of his bitter remarks against PM Narendra Modi and even read out a parody of a song from the film “3 Idiots” which Nitish used to recite during the 2015 campaign. “Behti hawa sa tha woh, Gujarat se aaya tha woh; Kaala dhan laane wala tha wo, Kahan gaya usey dhoondho,” Tejashwi read out the parody. Nitish retorted by referring to allegations against Lalu’s family that they had acquired benami properties.
Secularism can’t be used as cover for graft by a family to make wealth,” he said. Replying to Tejashwi’s accusation that he had compromised on secularism, Nitish said: “No one in the country can give me a lesson in secularism… I finally split as it became difficult for me to run it further.”
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