RJD chief lalu Prasad, convicted for five years in a fodder scam, walked out of Birsa Munda central jail on bail on Monday vowing to stop the march of the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to Delhi.
Returning to his inimitable style after 77 days of stay in the jail, a visibly calm RJD chief appealed his alliance partners to get ready for the battle ahead while throwing a challenge to the Opposition parties daring them to win the race to Delhi.
"Communal forces are trying to take control of power. So, I urge all secular parties to unite and drive away these forces," said lalu. Speaking to reporters, lalu also pooh-poohed Narendra Modi's rise in the party while downplaying his chances of making impact in the coming elections and flaunted backward card with religious twist to stall the march of BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the parliamentary elections. In his familiar style lalu used metaphors like Dwarka to indicate his wish to challenge Modi in his bastion, Gujarat.
"Narendra Modi or any Modi… I am now ready (to take them head on)," thundered lalu.
"I will go around the country to strengthen the secular forces and Narendra Modi, BJP or RSS will not be allowed to fulfill their dreams," the RJD chief said. The former Bihar Chief Minister was sentenced to five-year jail in connection with fodder scam case involving fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa treasury.
The RJD stalwart also expressed his respect for the judiciary and said that judiciary should not be brought in the purview of proposed lokpal.
"I believed in the law and had faith in it. I was sure they would let me go," he said.
Incidentally, the RJD chief criticised the CBI, which, according to BJP leader Saryu Roy, favoured the former during hearing on his bail in the Supreme Court.
"The CBI hasn't done right. I cannot state what the kind of injustice they have done with me," he maintained. "But, I was not afraid of going to jail, as a person who is scared of jail, cannot do anything in life," he said.
Expressing his views over the deadlock in Delhi over Government formation, lalu said that now there are political parties in the national Capital who want to fight elections but don't want to form Government. The RJD chief's comments were an attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP, which have secured 28 and 32 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
Slamming social activist Anna Hazare, lalu said that people like Anna want to subvert the courts by bringing in the lokpal. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on December 13 on the ground of parity with as many as 37 other convicts who are reportedly out on bail in the case.
Earlier, lalu's counsel Prabhat Kumar presented the bail order in the special CBI court on Monday morning which fixed the quantum of two surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each for bailer- Koderma MlA Annapurna Devi and Godda MlA Sanjay Yadav.