Lalu attacks Nitish, anoints sons
16 May 2013 7:16 AM IST
For former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav it has come a full circle. From a Socialist youth leader who fought against the dynastic rule of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief on Wednesday decided to play a doting father anointing his sons as the future leaders of the party.
The RJD on Wednesday organised a mammoth rally at Patna’s historical Gandhi Maidan. Christened as ‘Parivartan Rally’, the meeting was supposed to herald the campaign for the change of the state government. However, it ended as the start of the succession process in the party. Defending presence of his children on the stage, Yadav said, ‘If my sons don’t carry the lantern (the RJD’s election symbol), what will they do? Carry around a BJP lotus?’
Senior party leaders acknowledged that the succession line of RJD leadership had been established without much ado. ‘If there can be a Rajiv Gandhi to an Indira Gandhi, a Rahul Gandhi to a Sonia Gandhi and a Sachin Pilot to a Rajesh Pilot, why can’t these young men infuse fresh energy in the RJD?’ asked former MP Raghunath Jha.
However, Lalu Yadav failed to get an endorsement for his sons from the two other sitting Lok Sabha members of the party – former union minister Raghubans Prasad Singh, who focused his speech on ‘misrule of Nitish Kumar’ while other sitting MP Jagdanand Singh did not turn up for the rally.
Being the first big show of strength after 2005, Lalu’s spectacle could not have gone without its share of repartee. Blaming Nitish Kumar government for poor state of education, Yadav said, ‘In my time children went to school with slate, now they go there with plate.’
To this Nitish Kumar said, ‘Lalu is badbola (loud mouth). We don’t comment on people who speak too much. There are some people, who are in the habit of speaking something or the other all the time. I don’t reply to them.’
The RJD on Wednesday organised a mammoth rally at Patna’s historical Gandhi Maidan. Christened as ‘Parivartan Rally’, the meeting was supposed to herald the campaign for the change of the state government. However, it ended as the start of the succession process in the party. Defending presence of his children on the stage, Yadav said, ‘If my sons don’t carry the lantern (the RJD’s election symbol), what will they do? Carry around a BJP lotus?’
Senior party leaders acknowledged that the succession line of RJD leadership had been established without much ado. ‘If there can be a Rajiv Gandhi to an Indira Gandhi, a Rahul Gandhi to a Sonia Gandhi and a Sachin Pilot to a Rajesh Pilot, why can’t these young men infuse fresh energy in the RJD?’ asked former MP Raghunath Jha.
However, Lalu Yadav failed to get an endorsement for his sons from the two other sitting Lok Sabha members of the party – former union minister Raghubans Prasad Singh, who focused his speech on ‘misrule of Nitish Kumar’ while other sitting MP Jagdanand Singh did not turn up for the rally.
Being the first big show of strength after 2005, Lalu’s spectacle could not have gone without its share of repartee. Blaming Nitish Kumar government for poor state of education, Yadav said, ‘In my time children went to school with slate, now they go there with plate.’
To this Nitish Kumar said, ‘Lalu is badbola (loud mouth). We don’t comment on people who speak too much. There are some people, who are in the habit of speaking something or the other all the time. I don’t reply to them.’
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