RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav eats ice cream during a public meeting in Sheikhpura on Tuesday.
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: “Tum toh dhokebaaz ho, wada karke bhool jaate ho.” In one rally after another, former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is crooning this Hindi song from ‘Sajan Chale Sasural’, thereby adding some colour to the lacklustre election in Bihar.
The crowd, mostly youths, join him as a chorus, humming the lyrics with him which is primarily aimed at assailing Prime Minister Narendra
Modi for not fulfilling his promise of providing two crore jobs every year to the unemployed youth.
The same lyrics — Tum toh dhokebaaz ho... — is now being cited by senior RJD leaders to lambast Tejashwi, before putting in their papers and resigning from party posts. "Tejashwi too did the same with the senior RJD leaders – deceit,” says RJD vice president and former minister, Brishen Patel, after resigning from even the primary membership of the RJD.
Committed leaders
“The RJD no more needs its committed and senior leaders who have helped the party grow over the years. It is now under the grip of those who have money and muscle power,” lamented Patel, dwelling at length how he was promised the Lok Sabha ticket from Vaishali, but was replaced at the last minute by muscleman-turned-politician Munna Shukla, who was earlier in the jail in a murder case.
Brishen is not the only former MP to have quit the RJD. A former Rajya Sabha member Ashfaq Kareem has also resigned from the RJD over the denial of the Lok Sabha ticket.
“Lalu ji had personally told me to start campaigning in Katihar after promising me the parliamentary ticket. But the promise was never fulfilled,” said Kareem, who runs a fleet of educational institutes, including medical colleges, in Katihar.
The seat has been allotted to Congress which has fielded its senior leader and former Union minister Tariq Anwar, who has represented Katihar parliamentary constituency five times since 1980.
Voice of dissent
Similar voice of dissent has come from Jhanjharpur in North Bihar and Araria in Seemachal area. Former RJD MP Sarfaraz Alam minced no words in slamming Tejashwi for denying him a ticket from Araria. Five-term MP and national vice-president of the RJD Devendra Prasad Yadav too has expressed his dismay over being denied a ticket from Jhanjharpur and replaced by a Vikasheel Insaan Party candidate.
‘Unfair treatment’
“The VIP, a fledgling outfit floated by the so-called ‘son of Mallah’ (fishermen community) Mukesh Sahni, has been given three seats out of the RJD quota. The CPI-ML, which has a large base across Bihar, too has been given three seats. This shows unfair treatment towards the CPI-ML while an undeserving VIP is being treated with kid gloves,” said Devendra Yadav.
Tejashwi, is, however, unfazed by such criticisms. “These things keep happening. Leaders come and go during elections,” averred an unapologetic Tejashwi.