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Lalu’s RJD goes for a toss as 13 MLAs split
Lalu’s RJD goes for a toss as 13 MLAs split, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal. The JD(U) is reportedly set to offer Lok Sabha ticket or important roles in the Bihar government to them.
- Six return within an hour, others to support Nitish
- Speaker urged to recognise them as separate group
- Lalu talks to each legislator personally to end crisis
- Don't join communal forces, Lalu’s advice to Paswan
Patna: Veteran politician Lalu Prasad Yadav took about an hour this evening to effect damage control and woo back into his Rashtriya Janata Dal six of 13 legislators who had announced earlier in the day that they were quitting.
The rebels, led by the RJD's chief whip in the Bihar assembly Rakesh Kumar had met Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary and sought to be recognised as a separate group; the Speaker immediately declared them "unattached" from the RJD.
One of the rebel legislators, Javed Ansari, said the group would support the ruling Janata Dal (United). "Whatever we need to do to help Nitish we will, if we need to merge with his party, we will," Mr Ansari said.
But Lalu Prasad said, "I have heard about it. It's not true. I will find out." About an hour later, RJD leader Jaiprakash Yadav claimed that five of them had been won back. At his home, Lalu Prasad is talking to each legislator personally.
The rebel RJD legislators are said to be among those who want ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, but believe that they might not get them as Lalu Prasad might offer these seats to the Congress a part of an expected pre-poll alliance.
The JD(U) is reportedly set to offer Lok Sabha ticket or important roles in the Bihar government to them. "The party has become a B-team of Congress, we don't feel like working with them," Mr Ansari said.
Mr Yadav has also had to deal with speculation that his partner of many years, Ram Vilas Paswan of the LJP is said to be exploring rekindling his old ties with the BJP; he is reportedly worried that if the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar have to be divided up between the Congress, RJD, Congress-ally Nationalist Congress Party and him, his party will get to contest very few. In the 2010 assembly polls, the RJD was almost routed, managing to win only 22 seats in the 243-member assembly. The JD(U) had won 115 seats, and its alliance partner, the BJP, 91. The JD(U) parted ways with the BJP in June last year in protest against Narendra Modi's elevation in his party. Amid indications that its ally LJP was moving towards BJP, Lalu reached out to Ram Vilas Paswan, saying he should not join "communal forces".
