Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said the Central Bureau of Investigation’s First Information Report accusing him of corruption was just “political vendetta”, reported ANI. Yadav claimed the FIR was a conspiracy by Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yadav said he had pledged “zero tolerance” for corruption when he became deputy chief minister three years ago, and that there were no such cases against the three departments he headed. Yadav said Amit Shah and Modi had been trying to break the grand alliance in Bihar “from Day 1”.

Yadav said some of the cases against him pertained to the 2004-’09 period when his father Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union railways minister, when he was a teenager. “How could a kid do all this?” he asked. He said the grand alliance would not break and that the BJP would get a “fitting reply”.

Alliance problems

The Rashtriya Janata Dal’s alliance partner in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday gave Lalu Yadav’s party three to four days to “come clean” on the charges against Yadav and his family. “Those facing corruption charges should face the public and come clean on the corruption charges,” said Neeraj Kumar, spokesperson for the JD(U) after a meeting of party members. “We are confident it will happen.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party had offered to provide outside support to the Nitish Kumar government if the state’s grand alliance is dissolved.