RJD chief lalu Prasad played his own part of masterstroke at sprawling Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Wednesday by attracting a mammoth crowd during his much-vaunted ‘Parivartan Rally’ but ducked an opportunity to launch his two sons, Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav in the hurly-burly world of politics with much fanfare.
lalu might have adopted a cautious approach in projecting his two sons in a big way in view of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar making statement that the Parivartan Rally is being held to hand over leadership of the RJD to both brothers.
Given the high temperature and also the fact that the RJD not enjoying power either in the State and practically bereft of any very significant role at the Centre too, the Parivartan Rally might compete with other previous rallies of the RJD including the last one, ‘Chetawani Rally’ in 2007 when lalu was the Railway Minister.
It is estimated that at least one lakh to 1.25 lakh people congregated at Gandhi Maidan to listen to lalu who made his first public appearance after 2007.
Except waving to an enthusiastic crowd and posing before a battery of camerapersons for sometime, both sons of lalu relegated themselves behind the stage curtain in company of their eldest sister, Misa Bharti.
lalu had introduced Tejaswi, a former Ranji Trophy player, to voters during the 2010 State Assembly elections but Tejaswi kept himself away from active politics until he started positioning himself in the State politics a few months back.
Their mother and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, however, sat next to lalu, accepting greetings from the crowd. Though his script of the speech did not offer much new, lalu strategically picked up those points which mainly constitute the State Government’s fault lines.
To strike a chord with upper castes, primarily politically aggressive Bhumihars, lalu reminded the people that Ranbir Sena chief Brahemeshwar Mukhiya was assassinated during the NDA regime while his life was safe following his arrest in 2002 when his party was in the power.
“I have asked the police not to adopt any third degree method to extract confessional statements from him but Brahemeshwar Mukhiya paid with his life under the Nitish Kumar Government,” he added.
Wearing a cap apparently to woo minority votes, lalu said that minorities are being targeted under the NDA regime as Muslim youth are picked up from various towns of the State by the investigating agencies by branding them as terrorists.
Similarly, number of sexual violence against women has also increased alarmingly and even gang-rapes are being reported from different parts of the State at a regular interval.
“When I was ruling Bihar, nobody dared to see girls and women with a bad intention,” he claimed. Describing Nitish Kumar as a parrot of the BJP and the RSS, lalu appealed to people to strengthen secular parties so that communal forces do not occupy the seat of power after the 2014 lok Sabha elections.
Though contrary to expectations, the RJD chief did not made a “broadside” attack against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi expect a brief appeal to the electorate not to give any chance to Modi to lead the country.
Ruling out the possibility of formation of any ‘Third Front’ in the country, lalu also promised to give 50 per cent tickets to youth in the 2014 lok Sabha elections.
He said that the Parivartan Rally was just a beginning and the party would launch a comprehensive movement against the Nitish Kumar Government under a well-planned strategy.
He also promised to regularise services of contractual teachers who have virtually revolted against Nitish Kumar for not giving them salary at par with the regular teachers.
The RJD chief said that corruption and bribery had increased manifold in the State under the present rule and officers were not listening to issues being raised by representatives of Panchayati Raj institutions.
Despite strong instructions by the RJD chief not to engage nautch girls during the rally, some of them were seen in the procession when lalu was going to Gandhi Maidan to address the rally. Similarly, firearms were also shown by a few rally supporters, much in the violation of lalu’s instructions.