Tejashwi at the centre of storm: How corruption charges broke the Bihar Alliance

Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav

Nitish Kumar stepped down as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday, but the grand alliance between Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar had been under threat for several days ever since RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's house was raided on July 7.

On July 7, a 27-member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the premises of Lalu Prasad Yadav and found several property documents and laptops linked to a 2004-2005 corruption case.

The FIR which led to the raids accused Lalu Prasad Yadav of rigging a tender in 2005. When Lalu was the Union Railway Minister in 2005, he allegedly subleased two railway hotels in Patna and Puri to a favoured company in return for two acres of land being transferred to the Yadav family through benami account. Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also charged in the case along with his mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister.

Charges against Lalu and his son was filed under Section 420 (cheating) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

On July 11, the JD(U) made it clear that Nitish Kumar wanted Tejashwi Yadav to resign as the Deputy CM and explain the charges against him. He was given a four-day deadline by Nitish Kumar to explain his allegations.

Kumar said on Wednesday that Tejashwi was unable to explain himself.

JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar had indicated that RJD had no plans of dislodging Yadav and remarked that they know how to follow alliance politics.

A day after Nitish Kumar had asked for an explanation, Tejashwi Yadav had refused to resign and said that he was hardly 14-15 years old when the case took place. He also said that the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party secretary Amit Shah are playing "vendetta politics against him", accusing the BJP of targeting him because he belonged to a poor family.

Amid the growing demands by the JD(U) for the resignation of Yadav, Sonia Gandhi was said to act as the peacemaker between the two battling parties. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress which is the third in the grand alliance was allegedly trying to save the alliance. But Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday that those efforts had failed.