On Tuesday, 14th November, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav attended the Govardhan Puja ceremony organised at the ISKCON temple in Patna, Bihar. On this occasion, Lalu Prasad Yadav lashed out at the BJP and its leaders, including the Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and Ram Kripal Yadav.
“If not Rabri Devi then should I have made your wife the CM,” the RJD supremo took a dig at the Union Minister accusing him of plotting ways to become the Bihar CM.
Lalu’s reaction came after Nityanand Rai, during the “Yaduvanshi Milan Samaroh” event organised by BJP on the occasion of Govardhan Puja, questioned what work the RJD did for the upliftment of the Yadav community during its 15 years in power. Notably, Rai cited the recently released report of the caste survey which stated that less than 2 per cent of the OBC group’s total population was in government jobs.
The Union Minister had further lambasted Prasad for not entrusting “any Yadav leader within his party” with the CM’s post when the RJD supremo stepped down, faced with imminent arrest in fodder scam cases, and was succeeded by his wife Rabri Devi.
Miffed by the facts stated by the Union minister, Lalu Yadav alleged that Nityanand Rai had first approached him with a request to take him into his party and only after Lalu Prasad turned down his request did he join the BJP. Further hitting out at the BJP, which has frequently mocked Lalu Yadav for doing nothing for the upliftment of women during 15 years of RJD rule in the state except for anointing his wife Rabri Devi on the chief ministerial chair, the RJD chief said that if it hadn’t been for Rabri Devi, RJD party would have ceased to exist and the Nitish Kumar-Tejashwi Yadav alliance government would not have been formed in Bihar.
Lalu Yadav further claimed that if he fielded his son Tej Pratap Yadav in the elections, then Nityanand Rai’s bail would be confiscated.
RJD president Lalu Prasad, who became the chief minister of Bihar in 1990, had made his wife Rabri Devi the chief minister when he had to go to jail in 1997 in connection with a multi-crore fodder scam case. Her chief ministerial tenure even exceeds that of Lalu Prasad’s seven-year tenure.
Further hitting out at BJP’s ‘Yaduvanshi Milan Samaroh’ that was held at the Bapu Sabhagar auditorium in the city, on the occasion of Govardhan Puja, a festival associated with Lord Krishna whose descendants are the Yadavs, Lalu Yadav accused BJP of creating a rift between the Yadav community.
Lalu, further targeted his former confidant Ram Kripal Yadav, claiming that he in the past ran an unlawful land-grabbing racket. Lalu claimed that Ram Kripal Yadav used his position and clout to illegally usurp properties, including hotels and land from the poor.
Ram Kripal Yadav is a former member of Rashtriya Janata Dal and a close confidant of Lalu Yadav who later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ram Kripal had quit the RJD before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and won on a BJP ticket from Pataliputra, defeating Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti.
Meanwhile, apart from RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, many leaders including Shivanand Tiwari, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, Minister Surendra Prasad Yadav, Bhola Yadav were present on the stage during the program organised by Shri Krishna Chetna Samiti at the ISKCON temple in Patna, Bihar.