Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav asserted during his Jan Vishwas Yatra at Siwan on Thursday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was giving swords in the hands of people and has become a dustbin in which it was collecting leaders from all parties that have become garbage.

Tejashwi claimed that chief minister Nitish Kumar had apologised with folded hands to his parents — Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi — because of which he was taken back into the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).

He also exhorted the crowd to attend the Indian National Developmental Inclusive (INDIA) rally in Patna on March 3 in which several senior Congress and Left parties leaders are expected to participate.

“We distributed pens among the people. The BJP handed out swords to them. This is the difference between them and us. Earlier we used to think that the BJP has become a washing machine, but we now realise that it has become a dustbin in which it is collecting leaders, from different parties, who have become garbage,” said the RJD leader while speaking at a public rally at Siwan.

Tejashwi added that Nitish “had come to (father) Lalu Prasad and (mother) Rabri Devi with folded hands and apologised. He promised that he would not repeat the mistake and claimed that the BJP was trying to break his party (JDU). He sought help from my father in defeating the BJP in the 2024 general elections.”

The RJD leader, who is at present the leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly said that leaders of different political parties in the country advised us to take Nitish into our fold if he has come with a clear heart because the BJP was running the operation lotus at that time.

“This is the reason that we again allied with him. He has now grown old and is unable to run the state,” Tejashwi said.

Nitish had teamed with the RJD to form Mahagathbandhan for the 2015 Assembly elections after quitting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2013. It routed the BJP-led NDA and formed the government in Bihar.

However, Nitish switched back to the NDA in 2017, leaving the Mahagathbandhan, especially the RJD, high and dry. He flipped again in 2022 to join hands with the Mahagathbandhan and form a new government but jumped ship again on January 28 to form the NDA government in the state.

Tejashwi embarked on the statewide whirlwind on February 20, kicking off the Lok Sabha poll campaign. He will tour all the districts in 11 days, interacting with people, and holding public rallies and corner meetings. Apart from canvassing for the elections, he will also present the work done by his party during the past 17 months of the Mahagathbandhan rule.

Earlier in the day, Tejashwi took to social media platform X to assert that Nitish was not expanding his cabinet as he wanted to dissolve the Legislative Assembly due to the distrust between the JDU and the BJP.