The Bihar Assembly witnessed unruly scenes on July 11 as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs demanded the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister and ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav as the CBI recently named him in a chargesheet filed in connection with a land-for-jobs scam
The BJP MLAs trooped into the well of the House, raising slogans demanding Mr. Yadav resignation. They also lifted chairs over their heads and also banged on the table. Amid the continued bedlam, Speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary adjourned the House till 2 p.m. “Your behaviour is a blot on the history of this august House”, he told the protesting BJP MLAs before adjourning the House till lunch. After lunch, the pandemonium continued and the House was adjourned till July 12.
Also read: Explained | What is the alleged land-for-jobs scam involving former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad?
Speaking to mediapersons, Leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha said, “What happened to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s zero tolerance for three Cs: crime, corruption and communalism? He [Mr. Kumar] has compromised with corruption for the sake of being in power. The people of this State will not tolerate this”.
This is the second day of the ongoing five-day Monsoon Session that the BJP MLAs have raised the issue in the Assembly. When the Opposition MLAs created din in the House, neither Mr. Yadav nor Mr. Kumar were present. Mr. Yadav was present when the House convened in the second half of the day.
The case pertains to jobs given to people in lieu of lands allegedly gifted to RJD chief Lalu Prasad when he was the Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009.
Mr. Yadav denied all allegations levelled against him and said he knew that the BJP-led government at the Centre would name him in the chargesheet as “we’ve thrown them out of power in Bihar”.
“In this case, the first chargesheet was filed in 2017 and now again in 2023. What were the Central agencies doing for the past six years in the case? Whenever, we’ve thrown out BJP out of power, the chargesheets are filed and raids are conducted against us. The BJP-led government is misusing Central investigating agencies but, let me tell you there is no merit in the case,” he said. “BJP has no worries for people of Bihar as party legislators are disrupting proceedings of the House continuously,” he added.
BJP leaders said there was a tradition in the House that a Minister, if named in a chargesheet, has to resign or should be asked by the Chief Minister to resign. “It should be followed now in Tejashwi Yadav’s case as well,” a leader said.
Leader of the Opposition Mr. Sinha asked, “When former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and other Ministers were removed from the Cabinet after an FIR was filed against them, why is this Minister (Tejashwi Yadav) sitting in the Cabinet even after being named in a chargesheet?”
