RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday claimed the country was witnessing an "emergency-like situation" under the BJP-led government at the Centre, and held that his efforts to bring UP opposition leaders Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav together would "end the 2019 match".
The former Bihar chief minister, speaking at the 21st foundation day function of his party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, was referring to the next Lok Sabha polls. In a scathing attack here against the NDA government, the RJD supremo said the country was witnessing an "undeclared emergency" which, he held, was worse than the one imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975.
"In the face of the kind of situation prevailing in the country today, the emergency days of the late Indira Gandhi would look very insignificant," he said, while mentioning incidents of cow vigilantism.
He questioned the BJP's portrayal of its presidential nominee, Ram Nath Kovind, as a Dalit.
"In Gujarat, Kori (the caste to which Kovind belongs) is an OBC caste and constitutes around 18 per cent of the state population. Narendra Modi chose to field Kovind in the presidential election in order to attract votes of this big chunk," Prasad claimed. Meira Kumar, he added, belonged to an all-India Dalit caste.
"Due to my firm ideology against communalism and fascism of the BJP and RSS, even if the Congress had supported an NDA candidate, I would not have voted for him," he said.
The RJD is supporting Congress candidate Meira Kumar, who is being backed by 17 parties for the July-17 presidential poll.
In a blistering attack against the BJP and RSS, Prasad said the party had humiliated senior leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi by not fielding them for the presidential post.