Patna: While many see RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav as a 'funny politician', who knows how to use media to remain in the limelight, there are some who feel that the veteran leader is nothing but some one who cuts into others' votes.
Former RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan, who is better known as Pappu Yadav, has called Lalu as a 'vote katua' in a recent interview to The Indian Express that was published on Wednesday.
During the interview, Ranjan, who has floated his own Jan Adhikar Party and is said to be negotiating with the Samajwadi Party-NCP alliance for seats, said 'Lalu Prasad is just a vote katua. I am asking for votes for myself.'
Former RJD MP also elaborated that his party will contest on at least 100 seats in the Bihar assembly polls.
Replying to a question on why was he so interested in allying with the Samajwadi Party-NCP combine, Yadav said, “I have been associated with Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) from my childhood. I have been the Samajwadi Party MP from Purnea, I used to go to meet Kiranmoy Nanda in Kolkata when he was a minister in the Left Front. I was SP state president in Bihar in the early 1990s.”
While claiming that Bihar was a top priority for him, Pappu Yadav said he wants to work for the welfare of poor people living here.
Pappu Yadav also attacked the ruling JD(U) and the RJD for doing nothing to improve the pathetic situation of people in Bihar.
Both JD(U) and RJD have been in power for 25 years, for 17 years they were part of the central government, both Nitish and Lalu were railways ministers in past, still they couldn’t change the situation here” he asked.
He also rubbished Nitish Kumar's claim of strongly pushing growth and development in Bihar.
What has he done? There is no middle school in 5,400 villages. I challenge Nitish on law and order and development, where does he want to accept it? He does not let cases be registered in police stations. What development has happened? He said the number of girls in school has increased from 1.5-2 lakh to 7 lakh. I ask him how many girls study beyond class X. Eighty-seven per cent stop studying before IX, Nitishji. He has not set up any girls’ hostels, he was quoted as saying.
When asked to reply on his own contributions as RJD MP, Yadav said, “I was never with them. I am an independent MP. I have always been calling their bluff even when I was with them.”
