Tejashwi will not resign, says Lalu

Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Friday night said his younger son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will not resign and claimed that the state`s ruling Grand Alliance is intact.

"Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation," Lalu Prasad told the media here after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence.

He said the RJD was going by the decision of its legislature party, which met earlier this week and decided that Tejashwi Yadav would not resign.

The RJD supremo said: "Mahagathbandhan (ruling Grand Alliance) is intact in Bihar and he and his party will not do anything which can give any space to the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to step into Bihar."

Lalu Prasad also refuted media reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had been requested to intervene to save the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government in the state.

"A baseless news is running in television news channels that Sonia Gandhi has spoken to me."

He, however, said that he would not know if Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Nitish Kumar.

"There is no difference with Nitish Kumar and there is no distance from him either," said Lalu Prasad.

He said that the BJP-led government at the Centre had been using the Income Tax Department, Enforce Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to destabilise the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, comprising the Janata Dal-United, RJD and the Congress.

"BJP wants that the Grand Alliance government to fall somwehow... But we will not allow that to happen," he stressed.