RJD boss lalu Prasad on Thursday observed his 68th birthday though he said he did not know his exact date of birth as his parents could not make it out his birth date and year. Donning a bottle green kurta and wearing a wide smile, lalu, with the help of wife Rabri Devi, cut a cake reading 68. Among the party leaders and supporters, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar specially drove to his residence to greet him.
“I don’t know how old I am but I feel I am young. And I will utilise my energy to drive out BJP. Bihar se BJP ki ghar wapsi shuru ho jayegi (BJP’s retreat will begin from Bihar). Now for the last time I ask BJP to declare who will be its leader. From tomorrow I will turn aggressive. People will not accept their plea that leader will be selected after election,” said lalu.
Nitish said he came to congratulate lalu and not to discuss politics. The two remained together for sometime. Road construction Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh lalan also accompanied the CM.
lalu said BJP’s downfall has begun. The party would break if one face is projected as CM because there are plenty of leaders aspiring to grab the chair, he said and added that each of them were ready to pull the legs of another. “In our alliance there is no confusion. Nitish is CM and will remain the CM. But BJP cannot dare to single our one name,” he said.
Former CM Rabri Devi said the RJD-JD(U) and Congress alliance is united and give a tough contest to BJP. Chipped in lalu, “BJP ka boria bastar gol kar denge” (BJP will be packed up). There is absolutely no contest.
Meanwhile, senior BJP and lJP leaders came down heavily on the alliance and said the NDA was not compelled to declare name of the leader as there was no internal fight over the issue. At one Press conference originally to be addressed by Union Minister Ram Vilas, senior BJP leaders Sushil Kumar Modi, Giriraj Singh and Ramkripal Yadav, both Union MoS and leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav were also present. Paswan said, “I am not in the race of CM post. Whatever BJP will decide, we will support.” The BJP leaders, however, did not speak.
At a different Press conference held at BJP office, Union Minister of Telecom and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said the alliance of lalu and Nitish was out of fear of BJP and one leader had to even ‘consume poison’.
“The BJP will get advantage of their coming together. It will be easy for the voters to realise who stands for crime, kidnapping and lack of governance and which party is for development without discrimination,” said Prasad and added that since lalu’s legacy is crime, kidnapping and lack of governance how Nitish would convince people about good governance and crime free society.
Reacting on Nitish’s ‘Badh Chala Bihar’ campaign, Prasad said the GDP in Bihar was 15.5% in 2012-13 when BJP was with him and it slumped to 8.8% the following year. Investment proposals worth Rs17,452 crore came during 2012-13 nd came down to only Rs6,059 crore, a decline of 65%. The crime chart is spiraling and kidnapping has shown 39% increase while road dacoity and robbery showing increase of 38% and 25% respectively. “This is real picture of rising Bihar,” he said sarcastically.