RJD chief mocks Cong state in-charge, draws criticism

Lalu Prasad gave a rebuff to the Congress while “wondering if his party should have left the Kusheshwar Asthan seat for the national party so that it could lose even its deposit.”

The conflict between the RJD and the Congress hit a new low on Sunday when RJD chief Lalu Prasad mocked the grand old party’s Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das and gave a rebuff to the Congress while “wondering if his party should have left the Kusheshwar Asthan seat for the national party so that it could lose even its deposit.”

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad leaves for his home from Patna Airport on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Prasad, who arrived in Patna in the evening after three-and-a-half years following his incarceration in 2017, heaped scorns on the Congress in New Delhi before he left for Bihar accompanied by wife Rabri Devi and eldest daughter Misa Bharti.

On his arrival in Patna, Prasad, wearing a green cap and stole, was given a rousing welcome by the RJD workers and leaders with his sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav along with state president Jagdanand Singh at the airport.

Earlier, during his media interaction with reporters in New Delhi, Prasad sounded cryptic when asked about recently strained ties between the RJD and the Congress after his party announced the names of candidates for both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan, scheduled to go to bypolls on October 30. “Kya hota hai Congress ka gathbandhan? (What is this thing about an alliance with the Congress),” he shot back.

In the same vein, he justified his party’s decision of contesting both the seats and putting a candidate from Kushweshwar Asthan, the seat that led to the dispute between the parties as the Congress had staked claim to contest it as a constituent partner in grand alliance saying that the constituency has had a traditional stronghold on the party for long. “Should we have given one seat (to Congress) for it to lose? So that it could lose even its deposit?” Prasad said.

However, what created a flutter and incensed the Congress leaders in Bihar was Prasad’s bid to mock the national party’s state in-charge, Das. When asked about Das’s bid to obliquely accuse the RJD of having stitched a secret understanding with the BJP and attributing it as a reason why the opposition party was no longer keen on having ties with the Congress, Lalu replied, “Does he (Das) know anything?” In the same vein, Lalu further passed “derogatory remarks” against Das.

Bihar Congress in-charge Das had also said that the RJD-Congress ties have snapped and the Congress would contest 2024 parliamentary polls alone in Bihar.

The RJD chief also said he was going to Bihar after a long time and will be campaigning for two seats where bypolls are scheduled.

When asked about the growing differences between his two sons, Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, Prasad denied the reports and said, “There are no differences between the duo. Both are my sons,” he said.

There were posters and banners put up across the city to welcome the RJD chief, who drove straight from the airport to 10 Circular Road Bungalow.

Meanwhile, the Congress senior leaders, including MLC Premchand Mishra, have strongly objected to Prasad’s bid to mock the party’s state in-charge saying it does not behove of a veteran and tall leader like the RJD chief to use such derogatory words against a Congress senior leader.

“We take strong exception to the objectionable words spoken against our party’s state in-charge by the RJD chief. What will happen if Congress leaders too start using foul language against the RJD leaders. The RJD chief’s words against Das show his frustration,” said Mishra. Another leader and chairman of the state media department, Rajesh Rathore, said that Prasad should clarify whether he is planning to side with the JD(U) or the BJP to make his son Tejashwi the chief minister by distancing from the Congress.

The BJP’s state spokesperson Nikhil Anand said the RJD chief’s bid to use objectionable words against the Congress’s state in-charge reflected how the 74-year-old former railway minister was holding grudges against the national party. “Lalu perhaps has realised he has been pushed to political abyss due to a conspiracy of the Congress and its leaders and his troubles during fodder scam cases. It shows, if the RJD is provoked more, the party chief would not spare Congress top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and party national president Sonia Gandhi,” Anand said.

The former chief minister and HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi said Prasad’s objectionable statement against Congress’s state in-charge was an insult to Dalits and reflects how much respect the RJD chief has for scheduled castes.