The bitterness between three-year-old friendship of Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad came to fore once again on Tuesday following raids by Income Tax sleuths on 22 premises in Delhi and NCR with the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo tweeting that he was not scared of Bharatiya Janata Party making new allies.
The tweet came when senior leaders of the RJD were huddled inside the 10, Circular Road residence of Rabri Devi and lalu with the media people crowding outside the sprawling house. lalu’s lawyers were also called in.
lalu’s tweet in Hindi around 2 pm said, “BJP ko naye alliance partners Mubarak hon. lalu Prasad jhukne aur darne wala nahi hai. Jab tak akhri saans hai fasiwadi takaton ke khilaf larha rahunga. (let BJP go happy with new alliance partners. lalu Prasad is not going to succumb or frighten. Till my last breath I will continue to fight against fascist forces).”
The tweet which clearly meant that lalu had the Janata Dal (United) on his mind when he said “BJP ko naye alliance partners Mubarak”, which also gave hint that the RJD was weighing option to walk out of the alliance.
It created a political storm particularly in the JD(U) circle. But within half-an-hour, RJD national secretary Manoj Jha came out of lalu’s residence to ‘clarify’ that by alliance partners lalu meant official machinery. “BJP is using I-T and may use CBI as its alliance partners to harass lalu,” he said.
later, lalu tweeted again. “Zyada laal mat tapkao. Gathbandhan atoot hai.” (Don’t drop saliva (out of greed). Alliance is unbreakable). He further said, “Many more like minded parties will be brought together. I am not afraid of the BJP’s Government machinery and official allies.” In another tweet, lalu tried to put a brave front, “The BJP has no courage to gag lalu’s voice. If it tries to do so, crores of lalu will stand up. RSS-BJP shivers with the name of lalu. They know lalu is demolishing their jumla, jhoot and loot.”
The I-T raid, which is also apprehended to be conducted on premises allegedly linked with lalu family in and around Patna, began only a day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said if the BJP had merit in the allegations against lalu it should approach the court and that no charge concerned Bihar Government.
At the Press conference of Nitish where he made these observations, his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was seated next to him in apparently tense mood. He may have been uneasy as the CM did not defend or gave clean chit to his father. When came out he exploded before the media, “Why every time one family is targetedIJ Why only we are asked questionsIJ We have already won the case in the Supreme Court.” He also lashed out at the media for not giving prominence to the charges RJD levelled against BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi.
Excited over the I-T raids, Modi said, “The Central agency acted moments after Nitish’s statement.” Shivanand Tewari of RJD retaliated by saying that it was yet another attempt by Modi to create differences in the Maha Gathbandhan. Modi has launched a sustained campaign against lalu family exposing corruptions for the past 40 days.