Tejashwi must come clean on graft charges or resign: Nitish tells Rahul

New Delhi: In an attempt to keep the grand alliance in Bihar intact amid the ongoing rift between the Janata Dal (United) (JD) (U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had a 40-minute meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in New Delhi on Saturday.

Nitish made it clear to Gandhi that the Congress leadership must stop defending “tainted” Lalu Prasad family, sources said.

Kumar visited the Tughlaq Lane residence of the Congress leader and, according to sources, shared his concern over the continuation of Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejaswi Yadav in the state Cabinet since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against him on corruption charge.

The JD(U) has demanded that Tejaswi should either come clean with a detailed response to the ongoing investigations by multiple agencies on graft charges against him, or resign.

Later in the evening, Kumar also attended the farewell dinner for President Pranab Mukherjee hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A few days ago, Gandhi had a telephonic conversation with Kumar and invited him to Delhi for talks following reports of differences between the JD(U) and RJD over graft charges against Lalu Yadav and his family members.

The meeting between Gandhi and Kumar is being viewed as an attempt to save the grand alliance from breaking and preventing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from acquiring a prominent role in Bihar by supporting the JD(U).