Turbulent times lie ahead for RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, till recently the Deputy Chief Minister in Nitish Kumar's government after Bihar's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) was on Saturday asked to probe alleged poaching attempts made by his party ahead of the newly formed NDA government`s floor test.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also ordered a probe into alleged corrupt practices in departments Tejashwi or ministers from his party headed in the previous regime. State government has already ordered a review of all decisions taken by Tejashwi and two RJD ministers Lalit Yadav and Ramanand Yadav.
Senior most officers from health, road construction, urban develop- ment and housing and rural works departments have been asked to review all the deci- sions taken during the previ- ous regime. Lalit Yadav and Ramanand Yadav had headed the public health engineering department and mines and geology department respectively.
Sources claimed that the health department which was headed by Tejashwi had appointed a Haryana-based company, allegedly owned by an RJD leader or close to him, for providing laundry servic- es to government hospitals in the state. The NDA govern- ment may investigate it too, sources added.
Senior RJD leader and spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan accused Nitish of trying to dent Tejashwi's image by ordering probes into the functioning of departments held by him and also into the alleged poaching attempts made by the party before NDA government's floor test.
"Like Modi government harassing its political opponents through central agen- cies, Nitish is also trying to do the same thing but he himself will come under the scope of investigation as he has had the ultimate responsibility as the head of the government," he remarked. "It is simply a stunt bazi," he quipped.
Already facing heat from the central agencies in the alleged land-for-railway jobs scam, Nitish's announcement for probe into corruption charges involving RJD must comes as a double whammy for the 33-year old Tejashwi. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi trying to make corruption a major poll plank in Lok Sabha election, it is expected that ED is likely to shift his focus to Tejashwi once again.
Tejashwi for his part has announced plans to address 32 public meetings in various districts of the state from February 20 to 29 under his 'Jan Vishwas Yatra'. RJD has also planned a rally in the state capital in March. He seeks to reach out to the maximum number of people and also showcase his party's achievements when it shared power with Nitish for nearly 17 months.
