Patna, August 29 (PTI) Senior JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday alleged that the backdrop against which raids were conducted by the CBI and other central agencies confirmed charges of political vendetta at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The JD(U) parliamentary board president was referring to the CBI raids across 27 locations in connection with a 14-year-old railway jobs scam, hours before the Mahagathbandhan government faced the no-confidence vote in Bihar Assembly on August 24.
When asked whether he agreed with allegations of misuse of central agencies to settle political scores, Kushwaha replied in the affirmative.
"These allegations get confirmed by the very timing of such raids. Just look at the raids conducted last week (on the premises of a number of RJD leaders). These were carried out on a day the new government in Bihar was to prove its majority on the floor of the assembly," he said.
Kushwaha, who is a former Union minister himself, however, refrained from commenting on demands for withdrawal of general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), saying it was for the Nitish Kumar government in the state to take a call.
"A statement on such a demand should come from the state government. Political parties can come up with suggestions but the action has to come from the government," Kushwaha told reporters.
He was replying to queries on demand for withdrawal of general consent to the CBI having been made by many leaders of the ruling Mahagathbandhan government in the state, which includes RJD, Congress and the Left parties.
