Tejashwi Yadav attends JDU's Iftar party in Bihar; reasons 'isn't political event'

On the 26th day of the Holy month of Ramadan, the Janata Dal-United hosted a grand iftar party in Patna. While the who's who of the Bihar politics were in attendance, it was the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav's presence that garnered maximum attention. 

In the visuals accessed by Republic Media Network, Tejashwi Yadav can be seen sitting adjacent to Bihar Chief Minister and JDU supremo Nitish Kumar and relishing the delicacies served in the party. Furthermore, when Yadav was leaving the party, Kumar came out to personally see him off. 

'A purely non-political event'

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier last week, Nitish Kumar was spotted at Yadav's iftar party, which had got many tongues wagging about a possible alliance between RJD-JDU, now that cracks are evident in the NDA government in Bihar. The two major parties of the government- JDU and BJP are at loggerheads on a plethora of issues including caste-based census, NDA  leadership in Bihar, liquor ban, and law and order situation. 

However, refuting any chances of the alliance, Yadav said, "It is a purely non-political event, and should not be looked at from any other perspective."

Fallout of RJD-JDU alliance in Bihar 

It is pertinent to mention here that the Nitish Kumar-led JDU and RJD, under Lalu Yadav, fought alongside Congress in the 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections. In the polls, JD-U managed to win only 69 seats while RJD won 80 seats, still, Lalu Prasad Yadav gave the chief ministerial position to Nitish Kumar, and made his younger son, Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister. His elder son, Tej Pratap, on the other hand, was made the health minister of the state. 

However, after just a month in power, Nitish Kumar became a target of Lalu Prasad Yadav. "Nitish mere gor mein gir gaye toh kya hum unhe uthakar phenk dete (Nitish fell at my feet. Should I have thrown him out)?" Lalu said, in one of the rallies post-election. Nitish Kumar is said to have conveyed his displeasure over the remarks made by Lalu Prasad Yadav through the then JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and had even warned him against using such a language for him in public.

However, things did not change and in fact, Lalu's aids like Raghuvansh Prasad, and Mohammad Shahabuddin among other leaders started attacking Nitish. Unable to take the attacks, the JDU chief started diverging from the statements of its alliance partners and hailed the BJP on issues like demonetisation among others. Two months later, Nitish and Narendra Modi shared the dais in Patna at a function to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh.

Thereafter, the JDU chief exited the Mahagathbandhan and joined NDA to form the government in Bihar. At that time, BJP had only 54 seats in the state Assembly.