Former Bihar CM Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday slammed Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary after the latter claimed that Lalu and Rabri Yadav failed to provide any significant reservation during their rule. Tejashwi Yadav said, "When Lalu ji became CM, he extended the reservation from 12 per cent to 14 pc, and in 2000, when Rabri Devi ji became the CM, she extended it to 18 per cent."
He further added that Deputy CM should not resort to lies. He said, "Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary gave a wrong statement when I was talking about reservation yesterday. He should be ashamed, he said that from 1990 to 2004, we did not give any reservation, he was in our party, Lalu ji gave him ticket for the first time." "He is in politics because of Lalu ji, he should not forget the contribution of Lalu ji in reservation," Tejashwi added.
Tejashwi Yadav traces reservation decisions in Bihar
Yadav further traced the history of decisions regarding reservations in Bihar stating that it was RJD that only provided the benefit to the state. Bihar LoP said, "Karpoori Thakur was behind the 12 pc reservation for OBC in 1978" adding that it was taken to 18 per cent by RJD. "In 2005, when Nitish Kumar became the CM, the limit of reservation was not extended, and it was only extended when there was our Mahagathbandhan government for 17 months." Bihar LoP said.
What started reservation debate?
Notably, Bihar Assembly on Tuesday witnessed the heated debate between Tejashwi and Samrat. Taking to Nitish-led government, LoP raked up the reservation issue and said that his govt conducted caste survey and increased the reservation to 65 per cent. However, he claimed that the "BJP conspired to get policy overturned in court, he added.
To this, Deputy CM responded that the decision of 6 per cent reservation was taken by Nitish Kumar's govt (which was under Mahagathbandhan back then), dismissing Tejashwi's bid of taking sole credit for it. Additionally, he targeted Lalu and Rabri for not providing significant reservation during their 15-year rule.
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