Lalu Prasad Yadav addressing the rally in Gandhi Maidan on Sunday. (Source: Twitter/ @LaluYadav)
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led rally in Patna once again united the opposition parties under the banner of ‘BJP bhagao, desh bachao’ on Sunday. In a show of strength, leaders from the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came out together with the RJD, joined by rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav who claimed that the entire country will unite against the alliance of BJP and JD(U).
A sea of supporters have thronged at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan to witness the coming together of opposition leaders against BJP and its allies in a call given out by the former Bihar CM.
Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lalu Prasad Yadav said: “The country is witnessing an emergency-like situation today. Those not agreeing with him are being harassed by lodging court cases.”
Below are the Highlights of the rally:
5.50 pm: Vowing support to the unification of opposition in the Patna rally, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, through an audio message, said, today people sitting in the government want the public to be silent and does not care for the public. Gandhi added, “Sashak party ke bhrasth karnamo par parda daalne ke liye Bihar mein janadesh ka jaisa apmaan hua yeh sirf Bihar ka apman nahi hai pure desh ka apman hai. (The way in which the people’s mandate was disregarded in Bihar to hide the corrupt activities of a ruling party was not just a dishonourable to Bihar but to entire country).
5.35 pm: After a massive support from the opposition, former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav vows to continue his agitation until he uproots the “fraud and cheaters” from Delhi and Patna.
5.19 pm: Slamming Nitish Kumar on death of over 150 people in the disastrous Bihar floods, Lalu Yadav said that people did not die in floods, they were murdered as the flood was engineered. RJD chief added that the robbery of people’s mandate will never let Nitish have a sound sleep and that Kumar doesn’t have the courage to face the public.
5.15 pm: Cornering the government on increasing rates of unemployment in the country, Lalu Yadav said that the government is now building its ambitions for 2022 on false promises of 2 crores jobs to the youth.
5.07 pm: Taking a veiled dig at BJP, Lalu Yadav tweeted that instead of constitution the country is working on the wishes of two people who want to end the opposition with their threats.
4.45 pm: Targeting Nitish Kumar, RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav says that the former became a minister at the centre because of Sharad Yadav, adding, “I have made Nitish, what he is today.” Lalu expressed in his speech that the party had hesitation while forming the grand alliance with Nitish Kumar, still decided to go ahead and make him the CM candidate.
4.15 pm: Launching a scathing attack at newly-formed JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar, rebel leader Sharad Yadav claimed that the entire country will be united against such forces, ANI reports.
3.36 pm: Bihar Congress President Dr Ashok Chaudhary reads out the speech of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at the rally. Rahul, who is on a visit to Norway, in his message said that this government has forgotten the promises that it made to the people in 2014. He added “Mujhe poora yakeen hai ye jansabha sattadhari dal aur unki sarkar ke naapak iradon ko ujaagar kar degi. (I have full confidence that this rally will expose the nefarious intentions of the ruling party).”
3.30 pm: Meanwhile, these images contradicts the crowd sizes being portrayed by Lalu and Tejashwi Yadav through their twitter handles.
3:25 pm: Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav has begun his address at the RJD’s BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao rally in Patna.
3.14 pm: Gandhi Maidan is witnessing a massive crowd in support of the opposition parties who have come out to be part of the RJD’s “BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao” rally.
3.08 pm: Senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad vows unity with grand alliance says all national party leaders are with Lalu Prasad Yadav.
2: 50 pm: A sea of people can be seen at Gandhi Maidan supporting the grand alliance which has united at one stage against the BJP. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who has been leading the rally earlier tweeted, “No face will stand in front of Lalu’s Base.”
2:45 pm: Touting BJP, former deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav says “If someone thinks BJP can’t be defeated than come to Gandhi Maidan, 30 lac people are waiting.”
01:44 pm: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee at RJD’s rally in Patna.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee at RJD’s rally in Patna. (Photo: ANI)
12:39 pm: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad joins Lalu, Akhilesh and other RJD members on the dais.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad joins Lalu, Akhilesh and other RJD members on the dais. (Photo: ANI)
12:20 pm: Akhilesh Yadav shares the dais with Lalu Prasad Yadav
Akhilesh Yadav shares the dais with Lalu Prasad Yadav at the ongoing anti-BJP rally in Patna. (Photo: ANI)
Who are attending the rally?
Prominent politicians like Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will be joining ranks with Lalu Prasad Yadav in a show of force against the BJP rule at the center and in the state.
Leaders from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, JVM, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Kerala Congress, RSP, AIUDF, National Conference and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders would share the stage with Lalu Prasad.
Some of the prominent leaders not attending the anti-BJP rally include Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.
Patna District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Aggarwal said that over 6,000 policemen would be deployed for the rally on Sunday. He added that 64 CCTV cameras, 32 inside Gandhi Maidan and as many outside it, have been installed.
Sharad Yadav might face action for participating
“Earlier it was rally of RJD but now it has become a rally of Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) to save the country,” Sharad Yadav told reporters at Jay Prakash Narayan Airport on his arrival to attend the rally. When asked about JD(U) warning him of action if he participated in the rally, Sharad Yadav refused to comment. “I have nothing to say.”
Meanwhile, JD(U) principal general secretary K C Tyagi reiterated the party’s stand that with the exit of “mahanayak” (Nitish Kumar) of the erstwhile grand alliance, the Mahagatbandhan ceases to exist. Tyagi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have hinted that in the event of Sharad Yadav might lose his Rajya Sabha membership for violating the party line.
Criticising RJD for organising the rally, Bihar JD(U) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said, “instead of visiting flood victims, Lalu Prasad is busy showing his face as well as those of his two sons.”
“August 27 will be counted as a black day in the political history of the country,” he added.
CPI(M) skips rally
Some sections of the opposition have decried CPI(M)’s absence in the rally, whereas CPI(M) leadership has stated that had the organisers included apolitical persons and portrayed the rally as an anti-communal gathering, the party would have participated. “Our party general secretary (Sitaram Yechury) or any other representative of the party will not attend the rally owing to Mamata Banerjee’s presence,” a top CPI(M) leader told news agency PTI.
The CPI(M)’s organ People’s Democracy, edited by former general secretary Prakash Karat, in its last edition had asserted that “putting together an alliance of a motley bunch of secular parties” will not help in countering the BJP.
“The Modi government and the BJP are pursuing neo-liberal policies and the Hindutva communal agenda. So, to take the struggle forward against the Centre, there has to be a fight against both the neo-liberal policies and the communal onslaught.”
