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Tejashwi fails to show up, Rabri loses cool
Both houses of the legislature were adjourned for the day after customary obituary references.
Former chief minister Rabri Devi on Friday lost her cool when journalists asked her whereabouts his son and opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on the opening day of the mosoon session of the state legislature.
“Apke ghar ke andar hai (he is inside your house),” she told reporters as she was entering the Legislative Council, of which she is a member.
Both houses of the legislature were adjourned for the day after customary obituary references.
Rabri Devi, who is also the leader of opposition in the council, however, later told the media persons that Tejashwi was not hiding.
“He is not loitering around. He is doing the work that is expected from him,” she said after emerging from the Council after it was adjourned.
Tejashwi’s prolonged disappearance from Bihar’s political arena after the Lok Sabha poll results has been a subject of speculation among leaders of the ruling as well as the opposition parties. Many in RJD were hopeful that he might attend the opening session.
Earlier, MLAs of Congress and CPI(ML) stated a protest outside the Assembly over outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), which has claimed lives of more than 150 children and demanded that the state government declare it as an epidemic. They were also demanding the resignation of health minister Mangal Pandey for his failure to control the outbreak.
In his inaugural speech, Assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary expressed hope that the members would make their best to raise the public issues during the monsoon session, which was comparatively long. The House also expressed condolence over the deaths of minors due to AES in various north Bihar districts.
The monsoon session, which is due to conclude on July 26, will witness tabling of the first supplementary budget by deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, among other things. The opposition parties are expected to raise hot-button issues like the drought-like situation prevailing in many districts and the deteriorating law and order situation.
