Tejashwi Yadav to meet Sonia Gandhi on Friday ahead of floor test in Bihar

New Delhi: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who reached the national capital on Thursday late evening, will meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi today, a move which comes days ahead of the floor test in the Bihar Assembly on August 24. Tejashwi arrived in Delhi for the celebration of Raksha Bandhan. He will also […]

New Delhi: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who reached the national capital on Thursday late evening, will meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi today, a move which comes days ahead of the floor test in the Bihar Assembly on August 24.

Tejashwi arrived in Delhi for the celebration of Raksha Bandhan. He will also meet RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and discuss the recent developments in Bihar.

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This will be Tejashwi’s first meeting with Sonia Gandhi after returning to power in Bihar where Nitish Kumar split from the BJP-led NDA and rejoined the previous alliance Mahagathbandhan.

The RJD leader on Thursday called the recent tie-up of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) with Mahagathbandhan “a natural alliance and not a deal”, and claimed that Bihar will be the largest government jobs-providing state within a month.

Speaking to the reporters in the national capital, Tejashwi said, “It’s a natural alliance, not a deal. This is the real ‘Mahagathbandhan’ which was formed by Lalu Yadav Ji and Nitish Kumar. We welcomed Nitish Kumar’s decision and came together.”

Talking about the timeline of the fulfilment of his promises of providing jobs to the youth of the state, the Deputy CM said that it will only be done after the trust vote in the Assembly.

“We do not do BJP-style politics that we will threaten and buy the leaders. We will provide jobs, let the trust vote be over. We are very serious on this issue. Within one month, you will see that Bihar will be the single-largest job-giving state in government jobs,” he said.

Meanwhile, the new Nitish Kumar led-Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar will go for a floor test on August 24 to prove its majority in the state assembly.

Nitish Kumar was sworn Chief Minister for a record eighth time on Wednesday after he resigned from the post a day earlier and quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

The decision to hold the floor test on August 24 and make a suitable recommendation for convening state assembly was taken at a cabinet meeting attended by Kumar and Yadav on Wednesday. Sources said that expansion of the cabinet is likely to take place on August 16 and RJD will have more ministers than the Janata Dal-United.

Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance has the support of 164 members in the assembly.

Nitish Kumar broke his alliance with the BJP for the second time in eight years on Tuesday before joining hands with RJD and other parties in the Mahagathbandhan including the Congress and Left parties. The Grand Alliance also has the support of HAM, which has four MLAs in the Assembly.