Tejashwi may skip winter session of Parliament out of political shame post bypoll outcome: JD(U)

Patna: JD(U) spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar on Sunday took a dig at Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly, claiming that the RJD leader may give the winter session a slip out of "political shame".

Kumar’s comments in a video message came a day after the NDA, of which the party is a crucial partner, swept by-elections to four assembly seats in the state, retaining Imamganj and wresting from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj.

The RJD lost two seats, thereby getting deprived of the "single-largest party" status in the 243-strong assembly that Yadav and his colleagues prided themselves on.

Kumar also recalled Yadav's absence during the monsoon session, asserting that the latter had played truant because of "raajneetik lajja (political shame)" resulting from the Lok Sabha polls.

The NDA, which won back Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, earlier this year, bagged 30 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The RJD, which is I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s largest constituent in Bihar, returned with a dismal tally of only four seats.

Neeraj Kumar’s earlier allegation that Yadav had indulged in a "salary ghotala (scam)" by under-reporting his income in the election affidavit has invited a defamation notice from the RJD leader.

"A fresh session of the legislature is scheduled. If Tejashwi Yadav chooses to remain absent, then after ‘salary ghotala’, he shall be accused of ‘kartavya (duty) ghotala’,” the JD(U) spokesman said.

The legislature's five-day-long winter session commences on Monday.