Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Ram Kripal Yadav, a close aide of party Chief Lalu Prasad since 1990, today announced that he is resigning from all party posts in the RJD but not from Rajya Sabha. I am still a member of Rajya Sabha, Yadav said reporters.
Yadav’s move comes in the wake of Prasad saying that there would be no rethink on the nominations already made for the polls to various constituencies.
Lalu Prasad had nominated his eldest daughter Misa Bharti to fight the polls from this constituency, where he had himself been a candidate in 2009 and lost it by to his former friend turned foe, Ranjan Yadav, the Janata Dal (United) candidate by 10,000 votes.
Yadav had gone into a sulk Thursday after Prasad read out a list of 25 candidates for the 27 constituencies RJD and blamed dynastic rule and rule and lack of respect for senior leaders in the party.
He left for Delhi soon after that and said the media that he had been painted with the situation within the party but had not yet decided on his next course.
It was widely speculated that he had been offered a ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party either from Pataliputra or Madhepura, even as another JD-U MLC, Nawal Kishore Yadav, who is an aspirant for the Patliputra seat as a BJP candidate followed him to Delhi.
Lalu said, “Yadav had never evinced interest in the seat and he had known all along that Misa would be a candidate. This is the handiwork of vested interests and groups, within and outside, which are trying to drive a wedge between as. I know, Yadav will not ditch the party.
Sources within the party said that the RJD had communicated to Yadav that should he wish to fight from Madhepura, the party was ready to field him. However, Yadav’s decision to resign from all posts on Saturday made it clear, that he had had enough.
Yadav was joined by the leader of the party in the Bihar Council, Gulam Gauss, who said Prasad, had undermined the leadership, preferring his family over committed workers and that he was creating a Sheikhdom with upper caste Muslim leaders and leaving out the vast Muslim population, such as him.
Yadav’s resignation would definitely weaken the RJD, which could have benefited from his wide contacts and popularity in Pataliputra, Patna Sahib Constituencies and even Raghopur, an assembly constituency within Ram Vilas Paswan’s Vaishali.
Should he be fielded by the BJP, as is possible, even Paswan would benefit, though the vast Yadav constituency seems stuck with the Lalu-Rabri couple for now.
Bureau Report
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