The 13 legislators, including five belonging to the minority community met at the residence of party MLA Samrat Chaudhary and wrote a letter to Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary withdrawing allegiance from the RJD and expressing support to the Nitish Kumar government. Now RJD is left with nine legislators in the assembly.
It seems Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is in deep trouble. The same Lalu Prsad who was certain of his alliance with Congress and was banking on his old ally, Lok Janshakti Party’s Ramvilas Paswan, for lok sabha elections, was seen pleading the latter to stay with him.
“Ram Vilas Paswan’s personal assistant did not allow me to have a chat with him. Paswan should understand that it is not about seats but the alliance is needed to keep the communal forces away,” Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna.
His statement came after Bhartiya Janata Party successfully weaned Paswan away from RJD and Congress. For several months, Paswan, who has been a minister in NDA regime and in the previous UPA government, had appeared very keen to stitch up an understanding with the Congress and the RJD.
The news of Lalu’s troubles does not end here. His 13 legislators left his party pledging support to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar too today. The 13 legislators, including five belonging to the minority community met at the residence of party MLA Samrat Chaudhary and wrote a letter to Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary withdrawing allegiance from the RJD and expressing support to the Nitish Kumar government.
Now RJD is left with nine legislators in the assembly. RJD MLA Javed Iqbal Ansari confirmed the news to news agencies.
The RJD MLAs who walked out were Samrat Chaudhary, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Durga Prasad Singh, Lalit Yadav, Anirudh Kumar, Jeetendra Rai, Akhtar-ul-Islam Sahin, Akhtar-ul-Iman, Abdul Gafood, Faiyazz, Javed Iqbal Ansari, Ram Lakhan Ram Raman and Chandrasekhar.
Interestingly, Samrat Chaudhary, the son of senior RJD leader Shakuni Chaudhary, seems to be leading the pack. He alleged that Lalu Prasad had turned the party into the ‘B team’ of Congress in the last three months. Moreover, his statement came a day after a helicopter ride with the chief minister to Khagaria for inaugurating a road bridge.
“The party which send him to jail by tearing up an ordinance has become the ideal of Lalu Prasad who is losing no opportunity to pester its leaders. It will be better for Lalu Prasad to merge the party with Congress instead of allying with it for the Lok Sabha elections,” Chaudhary told reporters.
However, TV channels have reported that six out of thirteen MLA are refuting charges of leaving RJD and are claiming that their signatures were forged.
Well, we have never seen Lalu plead. Even when he is fresh out of jail and barred from contesting elections, there is no denying the fact that he still is capable of doing sizeable harm to BJP and JD(U). But the incident certainly gives an idea about the dire straits he is in right now.
