As Lalu Prasad returns home amid fanfare, son Tej Pratap fumes over ‘humiliation’
The RJD patriarch's mercurial elder son said he was humiliated at the hands of the party’s state unit chief Jagadanand Singh and MLC Sunil Singh.
As ailing Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patriarch Lalu Prasad returned home after years on Sunday amid much fanfare, his mercurial elder son Tej Pratap made as much news alleging humiliation at the hands of the party’s state unit chief Jagadanand Singh and MLC Sunil Singh. He later staged a protest outside his parents' residence claiming that he was stopped from meeting his father by “ agents of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)”.
Earlier in the day, Tej Pratap was seen at the airport with his younger brother Tejashwi, whom the RJD patriarch seems to have passed on the reins of the party. It appeared the duo had buried their hatchet while receiving their father at the airport, but it all got lost when Tej Pratap was seen furiously leaving mother Rabri Devi’s house and telling reporters that henceforth, he would have nothing to do with the RJD.
At the airport, Tej Pratap remained by his father side all along, but later accused the state RJD chief and MLC Sunil Singh of preventing him from spending some time with his father.
He had been reportedly fuming since morning when posters that were put up at some places welcoming Prasad did not feature him, but Tejashwi, Rabri Devi and Misa, among others.
“I have nothing to do with the RJD henceforth. I am, though, a devoted son and will continue to dote on my father,” he said, “It was such a happy day, but I was humiliated even today.”
Hitting out at Jagadanand Singh, the maverick MLA whose run-ins with functionaries of his party keep making headlines, said, “Until I am able to throw him out of the RJD, I would have nothing to do with the party. I would take a major step in the coming days,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, Prasad returned to his home turf of Bihar from where imprisonment in fodder scam cases had kept him away for three years. Prasad, who was released from jail a few months ago, arrived here accompanied by wife Rabri Devi and eldest daughter Misa Bharti, at whose Delhi residence he had been putting up for medical help he needs for the multiple ailments he suffers from.
Chants in praise of the “messiah of the poor” rent the air as the haggard-looking septuagenarian walked out of the airport, with a shuffling gait, tiredly waving at the huge crowd.
Prasad was last seen here in September 2018, after which he returned to Ranchi to serve his sentences upon expiry of the period of his bail, granted to attend elder son’s wedding and extended a number of times to help him avail medical treatment.
The former Bihar chief minister drove straight to Rabri Devi’s 10, Circular Road bungalow where a large number of supporters was seen waiting outside with police and security personnel sweating it out to keep their enthusiasm under check.
(With agency inputs)
