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Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad said on December 18 that they would drive Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of power. While leaving for Delhi to participate in the Opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) meeting on December 19, he urged media persons not to make a “big fuss about Modi”. The Opposition BJP in Bihar reacted sharply to his comment and said Mr. Prasad might have lost count of how many times he had “tasted defeat”.
“You [media persons] seem to have just one thing to say that [Prime Minister] Modi is going to come back [to power]. If it is so, be it…but please do not make a big fuss about Modi. We all in INDIA bloc will drive him out of power,” the RJD chief said at the Patna airport, before leaving for Delhi along with his younger son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. “The INDIA alliance has bright future and the alliance will form the government in 2024 at the Centre,” Mr. Prasad said. The fourth meeting of the bloc is scheduled in Delhi on December 19. “We, all the alliance partners, will sit together and chalk out the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Mr. Prasad said, when presspersons asked him about “Modi ki guarantee [Modi’s guarantee]” catchphrase used by the BJP for good governance and return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power again for third time in 2024.
‘Betrayed the mandate’
State BJP chief Samrat Choudhary said, “Lalu ji seems to be joking. He [Mr. Prasad] must have lost count of number of times he has tasted electoral defeat. Here in Bihar, he [Mr. Prasad] is only remembered for patronising criminals and indulging in corruption, which has resulted in his conviction in fodder scam cases.” Mr. Choudhary said the “RJD in Bihar is currently enjoying power not through legitimate means but because of treachery by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, as we all know, had contested the last Assembly elections in 2020 as an ally of the BJP but later betrayed the mandate for the lust of power. Both the JD(U) and the RJD will be punished by the people of Bihar when elections come.”
Convicted in several fodder scam cases, Mr. Prasad is currently on bail on health grounds and recently he had kidney transplant in Singapore and came back to India for recuperation. The septuagenarian leader, of late, has become politically active by participating in the INDIA bloc meetings and other events in the State.
Meanwhile, there is a buzz in political circles that Mr. Prasad’s another daughter Rohini Acharya, who had donated her kidney to him and lives in Singapore, could be a party candidate in the general election from the Karakat parliamentary constituency. Though, Ms. Acharya recently said that she followed the directions of her father and mother only, if people of Karakat ask her to contest election from there, she would not refuse it. “But these are the talks of future.” The Karakat constituency is represented by the JD(U)‘s Mahabali Singh, who had defeated RJD’s Kanti Singh in the 2019 general election. The JD(U) had snapped ties with the BJP in August 2022 to form the ruling alliance with the RJD, Congress and other parties. Ms. Acharya has been active on social media platform X with her socio-political views.
Asked about the INDIA meeting, Mr. Tejashwi Yadav said, “Everything will be discussed. We are doing whatever preparations should be done for the elections. Committees have been formed and they are doing their work. We know how much work has been done. Everything should not be made public. INDIA is one alliance and we all will fulfil whatever responsibility is given to us. Most of the regional parties are with the INDIA bloc”.
