RJD insists Tejashwi won’t quit

Patna, July 13 (IANS) The RJD reiterated on Thursday that Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of party leader Lalu Prasad, won't resign despite the corruption charges hurled at him.

"Tejashwi will not resign at any cost. RJD has 80 legislators. We will do what we want," Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Bhai Virender told the media here.

He was responding to questions over Janata Dal-United requests that the RJD would have to decide the fate of Tejashwi Yadav.

Virender, a loyalist of Lalu Prasad, said Tejashwi Yadav will not resign despite demands by some. "RJD is intact, there is no if and but in the party over Tejashwi. He will not resign."

JD-U state President Vashisht Narain Singh has said that the JD-U was not satisfied with Tejashwi Yadav's reply to corruption allegations against him.

"Our party is not satisfied. Now a final decision will be taken over it," he said.

A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked him to come clean, Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday dubbed the corruption charges against him a "conspiracy" hatched by the BJP brass.

Tejashwi Yadav, facing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), also made light of the allegations against him, saying they relate to a period when he was 14 years old.

Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi Yadav have been named accused in a CBI case related to the transfer of prime land in Patna to the family by two businessmen allegedly in return for licences granted to run hotels in Ranchi and Puri when the RJD chief was the Railway Minister.