‘Dhritrashtra of corruption’: Tejashwi dares Nitish to show resources for poll promises

Tejashwi Yadav said corrupt officials who had thrived under the Nitish Kumar regime were already jittery over the mere prospect of change of guard

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Sunday said that the state was sitting on a “time bomb of corruption and unemployment”, with common people suffering at every level while chief minister Nitish Kumar and the NDA were busy announcing schemes and sops far exceeding what the state’s economic reality permits.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addresses a press conference in Patna on Sunday. (PTI)

Describing chief minister Nitish Kumar as the “Dhritrashtra of corruption” for taking no action against the corrupt officials despite huge cash recoveries from them, the leader of Opposition said that the corrupt officials who had thrived under the Nitish regime, especially DK (CM’s principal secretary Deepak Kumar), were already jittery over the mere prospect of change of guard in the government after the upcoming assembly elections.

“The ‘double engine’ has failed and is staring at a certain big defeat this time, as people are cautious this time after the game played by some corrupt officials to snatch victory from the RJD-led Grand Alliance (GA) and they are getting afraid, ” he said.

He said corruption has broken all records in Bihar and reminded that earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself counted over 32 scandals at an election meeting in the state.

“In fact, the corrupt officials are more afraid than the BJP and the JD(U). Many of them run consultancy firms in the name of their wards. For housekeeping in the newly built government buildings in Patna alone, ₹700 crore per annum is paid through outsourcing. A huge recovery has been made from education department officials. There is a price tag for transfers and posting,” he said.

“One wonders what has happened to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)? They come to us and we understand it, as do the people. This is election time. But the silence on corruption is baffling. One engineer is caught with ₹13 crore cash and ₹500 crore worth assets, another with ₹12 crore cash and ₹100 crore worth assets, yet another with ₹300 crore worth assets, but nothing is happening,” he said.

Tejashwi said that he would come up with a detailed list of ministers and officials involved in corruption. “Someone should also inform the PM that some ministers and officials have thousands of crores worth of assets spread even in foreign countries,” he added.

Speaking on the state’s economy, the leader of Opposition said the 2025 Budget was of ₹3.17 crore, but the announcement spree of the Prime Minister and the chief minister in the last 6-7 months, including the CM Mahila Rozgaar Yojana, brings the additional expenditure requirement to around ₹7 lakh crore so far. The announcements still continue without a word on where the resources will come from, he said.

“After the Budget, the first supplementary budget was of ₹58,000 crore. The contingency fund has been increased from ₹12,000 crore to ₹20,000 crore. It totals ₹3.95 lakh crore. The committed expenditure of the state is ₹2 lakh crore and for the old and new schemes together there is just ₹1.95 lakh crore, while announcements have already reached ₹7 lakh crore, as the CM knows his government is not coming back and along with PM he is engaged in rhetoric to take people for a ride,” he said.

Thejashwi also dared chief minister Nitish Kumar to “prove he is healthy”, saying that “If the CM is fit, he should speak about his vision for revenue generation, what exactly is the quantum today, and how he plans to make these schemes actually run on ground.”

He said that his government would do economic justice with the deprived lot and won’t take them for a ride. “II showed the way for job creation, it was during my tenure that quota Bill was passed but it was deliberately jeopardised,” he added.

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) working president Sanjay Jha said that Nitish Kumar “is known for always walking the talk and Tejashwi is getting nervous by the response to the CM Mahila Rozgaar Yojana, which is a game changing scheme for the state’s rural economy”.

“Tejashwi will not understand the big strides Bihar has made from where RJD had left since 2005 and how women of the state are now ready to give a boost to the rural economy. The seeds of what Nitish Kumar has announced were sown in his first term and now is the time to get the fruits. Anyway, Tejashwi is free to do wishful thinking, but the people are not going to look beyond Nitish Kumar again,” he added.