PATNA: ‘Ladoo’ has not the ‘sweetening’ effect always as it was amply proved on the premises of Bihar assembly when an RJD MLA's offer of a plateful of Ladoos further soured the relationship between two sworn rivals- BJP and RJD.
BJP MLAs who boycotted the proceedings of the house in protest against the suspension of a party MLA Lakhendra Raushan were staging a dharna in the portico of the assembly when the RJD MLA Kesari Yadav elated over the grant of bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti in the land-for-jobs scam approached them with Ladoos.
But BJP MLAs took the RJD MLA's gesture as a ploy to tease them over a Delhi Court granting bail to Lalu and his family members on Wednesday. RJD and BJP MLAs also indulged in fisticuffs before BJP MLAs threw the plate as Ladoos fell on the ground. So the ‘Ladoo diplomacy’ instead of 'normalising' the relationship between both parties, only heightened the tension.
BJP MLAs also marched to Raj Bhawan to register their protest against the suspension of the party MLA Lakhendra Raushan and raised anti-government slogans.
Later, a delegation of BJP met the governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and handed over a memorandum to him. Leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha while speaking to reporters accused the speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary of extending favour to the ruling parties and also of taking action only against BJP MLAs. He said that his party sought the intervention of the governor in the matter and also contended that it would not allow ‘corrupt' people to conduct the proceedings of the assembly.
He said that BJP would not allow the assembly to become an office of the RJD even as he also accused RJD MLAs of acting like goons inside and outside the assembly and also using abusive language against BJP legislators.
After the house was re-assembled for the day, parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary requested the speaker to revoke the suspension of the BJP MLAs and call BJP legislators inside. Proceedings of the assembly would not be complete without their presence in the house, he added.
BJP MLA Lakhindra Paswan was suspended from the assembly on Tuesday after he broke the microphone during the question hour.