Tag: RJD chief

  • Lalu Yadav on what to expect on June 4: 'Modi gaye ab …'

    Lalu Yadav on what to expect on June 4: 'Modi gaye ab …'

  • Caste-based census: Lalu Prasad to meet his party legislators on May 31

    Express News Service

    PATNA: A day before Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar chairs an all-party meeting on the caste-based census in the state, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad will address his party MLAs and MLCs on May 31 on the same issue.

    Lalu will be addressing his party MLAs and MLCs after 11 months. The meeting will be held at the official residence of former chief minister Rabri Devi.

    This time, the RJD chief will be meeting his party legislators in person. Earlier, Lalu had addressed his party leaders through a video conference from New Delhi during the silver jubilee celebrations of RJD on July 5 last year.

    In the meeting, Lalu is expected to express his views on how the caste census format should be and would also elicit the opinions of his party legislators.

    In the meeting, Lalu and Tejashwi will also review the ongoing membership drive of the party and also how to strengthen the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party has fixed the target of enrolling one crore new members by June 30.

    Lalu considers that caste-based census is a strong political weapon to brighten its party`s prospects by consolidating OBC votes. In the past, he had also demanded release of cast data, which was not made public after the 2011 census.

    RJD and Nitish`s JD (U) are on the same page on the issue of caste census even as BJP also agreed to participate in the all-party meeting after its initial inhibitions.

    Earlier, an all-party delegation under the leadership of Nitish had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the caste-based census.

    Tejashwi has also been a great supporter of the caste-based census, saying it should be conducted not only in Bihar but also in the entire nation. It will help the proper distribution of resources, he argues.

    “If animals and trees can be counted, why not people and their castes. When the government has no scientific data on the population, how can it formulate welfare policies,” he questioned.

  • ‘Lalu was not scared and will not be scared from these governments’: Tejashwi Yadav 

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav launched a blistering attack on the Narendra Modi government following raids at the residential premises of his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his mother Rabri Devi and eldest sister Misa Bharti in connection with ‘land for job’ scam in the railway. 

    Taking to his official Twitter account to put a brave face following raids, Tejashwi said, “The path of truth and fact is the path of fire and it is difficult but not impossible to move on this path. It may be delayed but only the truth emerges victorious.”

    “We are fighting and winning. Will continue to fight and will continue to win. Let the wind tell Delhi Durbars, Lalu was not scared and will not be scared from these governments,” he remarked.

    The CBI on Friday carried out simultaneous searches at the residential premises of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi in Patna and Gopalganj in Bihar and also at the residence of Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member, in New Delhi.

    The raids were conducted when Tejashwi has gone to London with his wife to deliver his speech at a function. The CBI operation may define political equations in Bihar when corruption charges returned to haunt the RJD first family.

    In 2017, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had walked out of the grand alliance when his deputy and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (son of Lalu Prasad) did not explain his corruption charges levelled against him.Now, it will be interesting to see whether Nitish seeks to distance himself from RJD particularly Tejashwi when corruption charges once again have started casting a shadow on the Lalu family.

    Meanwhile, RJD leaders claimed that the CBI raids were carried out at Lalu’s premises in view of recent bonhomie between Nitish and Tejashwi.  RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh said that the CBI raids might have taken place due to growing camaraderie between chief minister Nitish Kumar and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav, particularly on the caste census.

    “Whether CBI raids were not a warning to Nitish as BJP was uncomfortable with growing proximity between Nitish and Tejashwi,” asked senior politician Shivanand Tiwari, who as a JD (U) leader along with another party leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh had submitted a memorandum to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the land for job scam.

    Interestingly, Shivanand is currently in RJD and is also considered a close aide of Lalu. The timing of raids was hinting at it, Tiwari added. JD (U) leaders, however, were cautious in their comments as senior minister Ashok Choudhary said that transparency was not maintained in the recruitment in the railways and corruption had also taken place. CBI might have got some evidence and so raids were being conducted after filing a fresh case.

    ‘It is absolutely wrong to link CBI raids with recent meetings between CM and Tejashwi,” the minister asserted. Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said Lalu procured land from people in lieu of giving them jobs in the railway. First, the beneficiary family registered land in the name of somebody else name and subsequently, that person gifted the land to Lalu, he elaborated.