When asked if he is concerned about the action by the investigating agencies, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday said far from being afraid, he was ready to let the agencies set up offices at his residence if this brought "shanti" (peace). "Let them (investigating agencies) open an office at my house. I'm issuing an invitation via your channel - 'ED, CBI, Income Tax, please come and stay as long as you want to. Why go away and come after two months to raid us? Just stay, it's easier'," he said, adding the agencies are "working like BJP party's cell".
Yadav also endorsed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the post of Prime Minister in 2024. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader said Kumar has administrative experience and has also been a Union minister. "He has experience. He has administrative experience. He has social experience. Except Rajya Sabha, he has been into all the Houses. He was a Union Minister. Tell me...if Narendra Modi ji can become PM, then why not Nitish ji," he told NDTV.
The Dy CM also asserted that his newly formed government will "deliver" on the promise of providing 10 lakh jobs that he had made while spearheading the RJD's campaign during the assembly elections in 2020.
Yadav claimed that CM Nitish Kumar, with whom he took oath the day before, has issued instructions to the officials concerned to accord "top priority" to job creation.
"There are so many vacant posts in government departments. We will begin by filling these up. Just for the time till we become fully functional after proving a majority on the floor of the assembly", Yadav said.
It was not just a promise but an acknowledgement of the crying need for employment generation in Bihar, the deputy chief minister said.
"We cannot think of going back on it since people had showered their blessings in the elections in which the RJD-led alliance polled only about 12,000 votes less, across all 243 assembly seats than the NDA", he recalled.
