PATNA, Dec 18:
RJD President Lalu Prasad today said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had expressed her greetings after his release from jail and pledged to work hard to forge an alliance of secular parties to drive away communal forces.
“Congress President Sonia Gandhi had telephoned me after my release from Ranchi jail. She graciously extended greetings to me and expressed happiness over my release,” Prasad told reporters here.
The RJD chief said now that he is out on bail, talks on alliance with secular parties for the next elections would be initiated.
Speculations are rife here about a possible tie-up of RJD, LJP and Congress.
Prasad expressed gratitude to CPI-ML General Secretary Deepankar Bhattacharya for speaking against “injustice” meted out to him due to which he had to go to jail in a fodder scam case.
“It is rare among politicians to stand for others and criticise injustice selflessly… Deepankar Bhattacharya is a political man and showed uprightness by expressing sympathy for me,” he said indicating RJD proximity to CPI-ML which enjoys considerable support particularly in the central Bihar.
Prasad, who reached home around midnight from Ranchi after release from jail in a fodder scam case, said though he has been debarred from “Sansad” (Parliament) as per new rules, but he would go to “Jan Sansad” (People’s Parliament) to drive away communal forces.
The former Bihar Chief Minister made it clear that it was the prerogative of Congress party to choose Rahul Gandhi or somebody else as its prime ministerial candidate, but “our relations with Congress will be as strong as it was earlier.”
Referring to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he questioned “How is he secular after staying with communal BJP and RSS for 17 years?”
Prasad pointed out that in 1990 he ordered arrest of BJP leader L K Advani in course of his rath yatra on Ram Temple temple issue in the state, while Nitish “flagged off” Advani’s another campaign in 2011.
“He (Nitish) inducted notorious criminal Chunnu Thakur who had engineered kidnapping of a school boy Kislay in 2004 prompting A B Vajpayee (during a rally at Patna in 2005) to ask about the boy’s whereabouts, highlighting poor law and order situation in Bihar under the JD(U),” he said.
“Facing huge protest he had to show doors to Thakur but many more such elements remain in JD(U) which shows the true face of the ‘sushasan’ (good governance) of Nitish Kumar,” the RJD supremo said.
Prasad received warm welcome by scores of party supporters around midnight on his return from Ranchi to his residence here after almost two-and-a-half months of stay in prison. Rabri Devi presented him red roses and fed him his favourite dish of ‘Make ki roti’ and ‘saag’ (green leave). (PTI)
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