Sharad Yadav Meets Sonia Gandhi Amid Strain In Bihar Alliance

Senior Janata Dal United or JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi amid the worsening ties between his party and Lalu Prasad-led RJD over the corruption charges against Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Sources in the Bihar grand alliance, which included all these three parties, said the two leaders discussed the prevailing political situation in the state during the near 40-minute-long meeting at her residence.

These sources were tight-lipped about the nature of deliberations between the two leaders over the grand alliance but added that they want the alliance government to continue.

They are believed to discussed various options to defuse the crisis after Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar made it clear that Tejashwi will have to come clean on the allegations against him.

Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Yadav, has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.

Upping the ante, the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief had on Friday asserted that his son will not resign.

The RJD has maintained that the charges against Lalu and his family are politically motivated.

The JD(U) has, however, insisted that Nitish Kumar has built an image for himself due to his honest governance and he will not let corruption charges against his deputy go unanswered.

They also discussed the ongoing farmers protests in different parts of the country and the need to take up the issue to corner the NDA government at the Centre.