PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said on Thursday that JD(U) veteran Sharad Yadav, who is unhappy about Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar allying with the BJP, would help unite non-NDA parties countrywide to take on Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Two senior RJD leaders — national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and national spokesperson Manoj Jha — met Sharad Yadav, a sitting Rajya Sabha member, at his residence in New Delhi. Sharad described the meeting as a “courtesy call” and denied reports that he was preparing to form a new party. He said he was visiting Patna on August 8.
“Sharadji is a Mandalvadi ( a staunch supporter of Mandal Commission recommendations) and an anti-RSS, anti-BJP leader. He is reaching Patna on August 8 evening and we will discuss our next course of action,” said Lalu Yadav in Ranchi after appearing in a court there in a fodder scam case. “This betrayer (Nitish Kumar) has left us. But he (Sharad) will work with us in uniting secular, non-NDA parties across the country so that the Narendra Modi government is thrown out in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” said the RJD chief.
Hitting out at the Centre over the raids at the Bengaluru resort of Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar where Gujarat MLAs were put up, Lalu Yadav said: “Narendra Modi got the resort raided. Why is there no raid on super-rich people such as the Adanis? An undeclared emergency and dictatorship have been imposed on the country 75 per cent.”
“As many as 424 Indians, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Raman Singh’s son, Amitabh Bachchan, K P Singh of DLF, Gautam Adani have been named in the Panama Papers scam. Why is there no raid against them? Conduct raids on them and bring out the black money. Or else tell the nation that those people were not named in the Panama Papers,” said Lalu Yadav, whose house was raided by the CBI on July 7. He said the premises of Opposition leaders were being raided selectively in a bid to threaten and frighten them. Ridiculing chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, Yadav said: “He (Kumar) changes his loyalties every two years just like a snake periodically sheds its scales. BJP certainly knows many of his secret wrongdoings… We are now gathering evidence and documents against his work.”
JD(U) leaders on Thursday attacked Sharad Yadav, saying if he decided to distance himself from JD(U), it would mean that he has compromised on corruption. “One can tie a four-legged animal, not a two-legged one,” said JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh on the possibilities of Sharad leaving the party.