Patna, October 06: RJD chief Lalu Prasad has dared chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi to contest polls against his wife Rabri Devi if they are really “Mai ka lal”.
Lalu said that Rabri would file nominations from two assembly segments Raghopur and Sonepur on October 9. “Agar Nitish Kumar aur Modi asal mein mai ke lal hain to aa jao maidan mein Rabri ke khilaf,” Lalu challenged and added, “Rabri nari nahi, chingari hai”.
When Lalu’s attention was drawn towards Nitish Kumar writing blogs to give vent to his feelings against him and whether he (Lalu) too would initiate a “blog war” on the pattern of “poetry war”, Lalu said, “Hamara blog khula hua tha, band kar diye (I used to blog earlier but now I have stopped)”, adding: “Hum ab zila kholenge (I would now open districts after coming to power)”.
Lalu said that for the last seven days he had been playing hide-and-seek with ticket seekers to escape them. “The ticket seekers were smart. They traced me,” he added.
Ticket seekers in all major parties like the JD(U), RJD, Congress and to some extent LJP have created ruckus and the disgruntled lot indulged in arson and violence at the respective party offices. While Lalu’s effigy was burnt in front of the RJD office, demonstrations were staged in front of the JD(U) and Congress offices.
These incidents forced party leaders not to attend meetings at party offices and rather hold such meetings at secluded places.
Lalu challenged Nitish Kumar and Modi at a posh hotel here where he had gone to felicitate Mohd Abub Talib Rehmani, who Nitish Kumar removed from the post of the state chief of the party’s minority cell and later dissolved the cell. Rehmani joined the RJD along with his supporters in the presence of Lalu.
“Nitish is the most unreliable person,” Lalu remarked and said, “He ditched everybody, be it Lallan Singh, Prabhunath Singh, Anand Mohan Singh or L K Advani and several BJP leaders who were insulted in the name of dinner.” Nitish used Muslims for his gains and later threw them out at the behest of the RSS, he added.
Lalu declared that he would start campaigning from his “Udankhatola (helicopter)” on Wednesday. “Time is short and we have to cover each constituency,” he said.
–Agencies