Pill for fuel hike: Bharat bandh

Patna: An all-India bandh against runaway fuel prices and unemployment is what Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s younger son and leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, suggested at a high tea where the national Opposition leaders broke bread after the swearing-in ceremony of the coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy in Bangalore on Wednesday.

The high tea was organised at the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha (Assembly), and was for around 40 minutes.

“I had talks with CPM leader and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu. They were very friendly,” Tejashwi told The Telegraph on Thursday after returning to Patna. “I also got the opportunity to interact with Kamal Haasan ji and D. Raja. Despite being the youngest leader among the guests, everyone took me seriously and listened to my advice as well. I gave a suggestion that the Opposition parties should call for Bharat Bandh over the issue of fuel price rise and employment.”

Tejashwi said he also had conversations with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BSP chief Mayawati, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

Tejashwi had gone to Bangalore along with newly elected Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha. The who’s who of regional powers thronging the swearing-in ceremony is being seen as a development that could plant a seed for a broad-based platform against the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

“The Opposition unity is not against any person; it is a unity against the ideology in which democracy is being murdered by BJP leaders. All of us Opposition leaders felt that democracy has been replaced by autocracy, CBI, ED and I-T,” Tejashwi said.

He said Congress and JDS MLAs in karnataka had told him that even anti-social elements had been calling up their family members after the election results threw up a hung Assembly.

“It was really shocking when they shared their pain with me and said that not only were the BJP leaders calling them up offering money and posts, but goondas were calling up the family members of Congress and JDS MLAs asking them to support BJP or be ready to face the consequences. We will have to stand united against the BJP and the RSS, because divided we will fall,” Tejashwi said.

Tejashwi praised the Karnataka government’s arrangements for the guests, and said commissioner- and secretary-level officials were deputed to take care of the guests.

Kumaraswamy also gave a memento to Tejashwi, a wooden replica of the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha.

Courtesy: The Telegraph