Tejashwi Yadav criticised Nitish Kumar for supporting the centre on the citizenship law
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday launched an attack on the JDU, accusing it of having struck a "deal" with the BJP as part of which it supported the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in parliament to ensure that its president Nitish Kumar remain in power in the state.
Talking to reporters outside the state assembly, Mr Yadav expressed dissatisfaction with the Chief Minister's assurance that concerns expressed by the opposition over the CAA, National Population Register and National Register of Citizens would be discussed in the next session.
"The chief minister could have extended the special day-long session for the purpose. It seems he was simply buying time, hoping things to cool down for his comfort," Mr Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the assembly, alleged.
At a special session, the house unanimously approved the 166th Constitutional Amendment, providing for extension of quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by another 10 years.
"Even on our apprehensions about the NPR containing problematic columns like places of birth of parents, he was equivocal. He said 'will look into it' and not say anything categorically," the RJD leader, who was flanked by party colleagues, including elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, said.
Mr Yadav, who is the son of the party's founding president Lalu Yadav and its chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls due this year, sought to make light of the stout opposition to the NRC by JDU national vice president Prashant Kishor.
"What standing does he have? Even his party does not consider him as its leader. Professionals dabbling into politics... I do not resent it, they are well within their rights to do so," he said about the election strategist, who is known to share good relations with his jailed father and had handled his party's campaign for the assembly polls in 2015, when Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav had fought in an alliance.
"But one thing I must say, there should not be deal-making in politics. The JDU's charade of supporting the CAA and opposing the NRC is part of a design. Does the party not know that CAA was brought to clear the hurdles that came in the way of implementing NRC?" Mr Yadav said.