Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad, who has of late been avoiding public gatherings because of ill health, addressed a huge rally in Bihar on Monday, hours before campaigning came to a close for by-polls to four assembly segments.
The former Bihar chief minister held forth in Belaganj, calling on people to "uproot the BJP and the RSS like you pluck radishes from your fields (mooli ki tarah ukhad dena)".
The ailing septuagenarian, who is known for his earthy witticism, also took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his arch-rival for decades.
Prasad canvassed for RJD debutant Vishwanath Kumar Singh, the son of Jehanabad MP Surendra Prasad Yadav, who had been a several-term MLA from Belaganj before getting elected to Lok Sabha.
Although the RJD's main rival is JD(U)'s Manorama Devi, a former MLC, the party appears to be perturbed with the entry of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj, which has fielded a greenhorn Mohd Amjad.
Kishor, who held a roadshow in Belaganj on the final day of the campaign, accused the RJD of "leaving no stone unturned to ensure the defeat of a Muslim candidate".
Notably, the RJD counts on Muslims, besides the Yadav community to which the party supremo belongs, among its core supporters.
Kishor claimed: "It shows the desperation of the RJD that Lalu Prasad, who did not canvass for any candidate except his own daughter in Lok Sabha polls, has campaigned in an assembly by-election".
The allusion was to Rohini Acharya, the RJD supremo's Singapore-based daughter, who unsuccessfully contested from Saran. Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti won Pataliputra, defeating her father's former aide Ram Kripal Yadav.
Besides Belaganj, the RJD seeks to retain Ramgarh and wrest Imamganj, which Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi hopes to hold on to by fielding daughter-in-law Deepa as the candidate of his Hindustani Awam Morcha.
Manjhi, who is also a former Chief Minister of Bihar, made his parliamentary debut at the ripe age of 80 from Gaya. The RJD has fielded a greenhorn Raushan Manjhi in Imamganj.
In Ramgarh, the RJD candidate is Ajit Kumar Singh, whose brother Sudhakar Singh vacated the assembly seat after getting elected to Lok Sabha from Buxar. The BJP hopes to wrest the seat by fielding former MLA Ashok Kumar Singh.
In Tarari, INDIA bloc partner CPI(ML) hopes its candidate Raju Yadav will retain for the party the seat vacated by Sudama Prasad, a two-term former MLA who went on to wrest Arrah Lok Sabha constituency from BJP leader and ex-Union Minister R.K. Singh.
Yadav's main challenger is BJP candidate Vishal Prashant, a greenhorn better known as the son of local strongman Sunil Kumar Pandey, who had represented the seat several times and joined the party recently.
The Jan Suraaj had announced the candidature, from Tarari, of Lt Gen S.K. Singh, a former Vice Chief of the Army, with much fanfare, only to replace him with local social activist Kiran Singh as the former did not have his name in the state's electoral roll, mandatory for anyone contesting from an assembly seat.
The Jan Suraaj has also thrown its hat in the ring in Ramgarh, where its candidate is Sushil Kushwaha, an aspiring local politician formerly associated with Mayawati's BSP.
In the reserved seat of Imamganj, Jan Suraaj has given ticket to medical practitioner turned politician Jitendra Paswan.
The party, which was floated just over a month ago, has been allotted "school bag" as the poll symbol by the Election Commission.