After Nitish’s ‘nine kids’ dig at Lalu, Tejashwi says CM ‘mentally tired’

PATNA: In a sharp response to CM Nitish Kumar’s jibe at his parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi for having “eight to nine children and no faith in their daughters”, RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan’s CM face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said that by doing so, the JD(U) chief was targeting PM Narendra Modi as well.
“By commenting on my family and personal issues, Nitish Kumar Ji is targeting PM Narendra Modi as he (the PM) also has six siblings.By using such language, Nitish Ji has insulted women and my mother’s sentiments. They (NDA leaders) don’t speak on main issues including corruption, unemployment etc and always try to divert people’s attention from main issues by using such language,” Tejashwi told media persons while reacting over Nitish’s remarks.
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Earlier on Monday, while addressing an election rally, Nitish took a dig at Tejashwi’s father and RJD boss Lalu Prasad for having nine children and not having faith in his daughters.
Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi have seven daughters and two sons—Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi. All seven daughters are older than their two sons. Their eldest daughter Misa Bharti is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, while Tejashwi is seeking re-election from Raghopur assembly constituency.
“Does anyone care (for Bihar)? They are giving birth to eight-eight, nine-nine children. They do not have any kind of confidence or faith in their own daughters. After the birth of so many daughters, their (two) sons were born. What kind of Bihar they want to make? Is this the kind of Bihar people want? If these are their ideals, one can easily imagine the extent to which Bihar will be ruined. (If they come to power) then, no one will be there to take care of peoples’ grievances. Everything will be destroyed in Bihar,” Nitish said at an election rally on Monday.
Though Bihar CM did not take name of any of his opponents but it was an apparent attack on Lalu-Rabri family because they have nine children and their two sons were born after seven daughters.
Earlier in the day, Tejashwi responded to Nitish remarks on Twitter as well. In a Tweet posted in Hindi language, Tejashwi said, “Even bad words used by Nitish Ji against me are like ‘blessings’ to me. Nitish Ji is mentally and physically tired and that is why he can speak whatever he likes. I am taking his every word like a blessing. This time, Bihar has decided to vote on the issues of ‘Roti-Rojgaar’ (bread and employment) and ‘Vikas’ (development).”
In recent days, Nitish, who has been in power in Bihar since November 2005 and is seeking a fourth term as the CM, has repeatedly been losing his cool during the election meetings on being heckled by a section of the crowd. He lost his cool during the JD(U)’s election meetings at Kanti (Muzaffarpur) and Parsa (Saran) after a small crowd of the RJD supporters raised slogans like ‘Lalu Yadav zindabad’ in the middle of the Bihar CM’s speech.
Earlier on Wednesday, Nitish made a personal attack on Lalu-Rabri family by raking up the issue of alleged misbehavior done with Aishwarya Rai, the estranged wife of the RJD president Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, at an election meeting and said, “Those who misbehaved with her would see in the future how dangerous would be the consequence of ill-treating a woman.”
Polling for the three-phase Bihar assembly election will begin with the first phase of voting on Wednesday. 71 of the state’s total 243 constituencies will go to polls in the first phase. Other 94 constituencies will vote in the second phase on November 3 and the rest 78 will vote in the third and final phase on November 7. Counting of votes will be held on November 10.