Asaduddin Owaisi targets Tejashwi Yadav, says Bihar coup is payback

Amid JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar switching sides again in Bihar and joining forces with the BJP-led NDA in the state, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took a dig at former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

"I want to ask Tejashwi Yadav how do you feel? He took away four of our MLAs. Does he feel the same pain now? He has been played the same way he played us," said Owaisi in an interview with news agency ANI.

Owaisi was referring to the switch made by four MLAs in the state who were earlier with the AIMIM and joined the RJD in June 2022. The AIMIM had won five seats in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections but after the four MLAs joined the RJD, Owaisi's party only has one MLA left.

The addition of the four MLAs elevated the RJD as the single largest party in the Bihar assembly and also helped Tejashwi Yadav's party emerge as the most preferred political outfit for Muslim voters in the state.

Owaisi said the Muslims in Bihar "have been betrayed again" and added, "AIMIM always said that political secularism is used to betray the Muslims in India."

He also took a dig at Tejashwi Yadav and his family for "sidelining" the people of Bihar. He said that their focus is to only have someone from among them become the Chief Minister of Bihar.

"The people of Bihar have been betrayed. There is no development in Bihar. Bureaucracy is on the rise in the state," he said.

He also hit out at JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and said the latter would be the Chief Minister of Bihar only in name and the governance will be carried out as per the wishes of the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Owaisi said that he had reminded people time and again of the possibility of Nitish Kumar switching sides again.

"Nitish Kumar has broken all records. I always said Nitish Kumar would go with BJP and that he is untrustworthy," Owaisi said.

Nitish Kumar resigned as the Bihar Chief Minister on Sunday only to take oath again a few hours later to form an NDA government in the state. This was Nitish Kumar's ninth time taking oath as Bihar Chief Minister since March 2000 and third time since 2020.