Nitish Kumar Wants Tejashwi out from the Government Before Friday: Sources

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The super-size political drama in Bihar is in its crucial case - before lawmakers meet for the assembly session that starts Friday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will insist on the removal of his deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, said sources. 

They said the Chief Minister is determined to telegraph that he will not allow the image of his government to be stained by charges of corruption. 

 Tejashwi Yadav is 28 and the son of political veteran Lalu Yadav, whose party has the most lawmakers. Three weeks ago, father and son were charged with corruption by the CBI which deputed teams to raid their residence in Patna along with other properties owned by them. 

Lalu Yadav called a meeting of his party which agreed that Tejashwi's resignation at this stage would amount to capitulation to a wrathful centre that habitually uses the CBI to weaken political opponents. 

 Unmoved by this assessment, Nitish Kumar made it clear that he expects Tejashwi Yadav to resign as No 2 in the government within the next 72 hours. As a peace offering, the young politician met with the Chief Minister last week to present his defense in person.

 The meeting apparently failed to reassure Nitish Kumar, who then phoned Sonia Gandhi and sought an intervention. Mrs Gandhi's Congress party is the third member of the Bihar government, and after repeated attempts at a reconciliation, has allegedly given up on trying to build bridges between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav.

Over the weekend, Nitish Kumar met in Delhi with her son, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Today, the Chief Minister and Sonia Gandhi were present at the oath-taking ceremony of Ram Nath Kovind as India's 14th President.

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