PATNA: The rift in Bihar’s ruling Grand Alliance widened further on Thursday as the Congress came out in support of Lalu Prasad-led RJD in the party’s ongoing war of words with CM Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) over the continuance of Lalu’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the deputy CM.The JD (U) has asked Tejashwi to explain the land graft charges in connection with which the CBI has named him in an FIR lodged on July 5.Congress MLC Dilip Choudhary ridiculed the JD (U) spokespersons who are asking for an explanation from Tejashwi. “Do spokespersons make or remove ministers? These spokespersons should rather clarify whether or not Nitish was satisfied with the explanation given by Tejashwi when he called on the CM on Tuesday,” Choudhary said.The RJD, JD (U) and Congress are the GA partners, having 80, 71 and 27 MLAs respectively in the 243-strong Bihar House.Tejashwi is believed to have given a “personal” explanation to Nitish. He reportedly told the CM that his family was falsely implicated in the FIR filed by the CBI owing to political vendetta and he would take legal recourse to fight it out.Though Nitish has not said whether he was satisfied with the explanation or not, the JD (U) has refused to accept the explanation. Party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said Tejashwi must do the explaining in the people’s court. Also, the RJD should offer an explanation to the JD (U).Neeraj said the JD (U) does not approve of the RJD’s stand that Tejashwi would give an explanation on the corruption charges at the party’s rally to be held in Patna on August 27.“The alliance was formed with a common minimum programme, which includes zero tolerance on corruption,” Neeraj told TOI.Another JD (U) spokesperson Ajay Alouk too demanded an explanation from Tejashwi at the earliest, saying the delay was causing dent on the credibility of the Nitish government.JD (U) MLC Sanjay Singh, on the other hand, said though his was a smaller party than RJD in terms of number of seats in the assembly, the JD (U)’s stature was higher than the RJD’s. “Questions are being raised on the image of the JD (U). Hence, an explanation is a must or else it may impact the alliance,” Sanjay said.RJD again ruled out Tejashwi’s resignation. “The RJD legislative party has already taken a resolution that Tejashwi won’t resign and that he would go to the people’s court at an appropriate time. I want to ask whether the JD spokespersons are actually authorised by their party to demand an explanation from Tejashwi,” said RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddiqui , who is also the state finance minister said.

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