Nitish drops fresh hint of passing the mantle to Tejashwi

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday dropped a fresh hint that he was looking forward to passing the mantle to his deputy Tejashwi Yadav. The JD(U) leader had last year said that the young RJD leader would "lead" the state's ruling Mahagathbandhan when Bihar would face its next assembly polls in 2025. This had ruffled some feathers in the JD(U) and led Upendra Kushwaha, the parliamentary board chief, to quit alleging that the chief minister had entered a "deal" with arch-rival Lalu Prasad, the RJD supremo, while allying.