Lalu mum on MPs’ resignation letters

There was no word from Lalu Prasad about the resignations of his MPs over the attack on North Indians in Maharashtra even as Bihar CM Nitish Kumar accused him of failing to mount pressure on the Centre on the issue.

There was no word from RJD chief Lalu Prasad about the resignations of his MPs over the attack on North Indians in Maharashtra even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accused him of failing to mount pressure on the Centre on the issue.

HT Image

In keeping with Lalu’s diktat, all RJD MPs and legislators had handed in their resignations much before the deadline of November 15. There was, however, no word from Lalu whether he would forward the resignations to the Lok Sabha Speaker. On Saturday, he refused to meet journalists who wanted to know about the fate of these letters.

Deputy leader of the RJD’s parliamentary party Devendra Prasad Yadav would be reaching the Capital on Sunday amid speculation that the party would soon have to take a formal stand on the issue.

The RJD chief, who is reportedly opposed to holding the Lok Sabha elections even a few weeks before schedule, is now under pressure after the JD-U seized the initiative with the resignation of its five Lok Sabha members.

Prasad had dubbed JD-U’s the move as a “drama’’ and in a letter to Nitish Kumar, last week, demanded that the party show its sincerity on the issue by getting its legislators and Rajya Sabha MPs also to quit.

In his reply on Saturday, Nitish Kumar dismissed the demand and accused Prasad of pursuing “petty and mean politics.’’ He alleged that Prasad was trying to place Bihar under President’s Rule when he should have mounted pressure on the Centre and through it on Maharashtra.

Nitish Kumar referred to the pressure that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi put on the UPA by threatening the resignation of DMK MPs in the wake of attacks on Tamils in Sri Lanka.

He said if the RJD leader had also threatened to quit, the UPA and the Maharashtra government would have been chastised and MNS’s Raj Thackeray “thrown behind bars.’’ He said Prasad was in the “habit’’ of not keeping promises, including the one he made of performing Chhatt Puja in Mumbai.