Suspended Janata Dal (United) MLA Sarfaraz Alam today resigned from the party and also assembly to join RJD giving a clear indication of contesting bypoll from Araria Lok Sabha seat represented by his father. Alam joined Lalu Prasad's party in presence of senior RJD leaders including its national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary at RJD's office here. He accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party JD(U) of "betraying secular forces" by joining hands with the BJP. The development came a day after bypolls were announced for two assembly segments in Bihar, besides the Araria Lok Sabha seat which was represented by Alam's late father Mohammad Taslimuddin, who was a RJD MP. Taslimuddin had won the seat by a margin of more than two lakh votes, while the BJP and the JD(U) - which had fought separately - finished almost neck and neck occupying respectively the second and the third positions in the 2014 general elections. Alam told reporters "I had joined the JD(U) as it was then a part of the Grand Alliance which represented secular forces. Ever since the party betrayed the secular forces, I have been under pressure from my voters and my mother that I join the party to which my father belonged". Asked whether he has been promised the RJD ticket from Araria, Alam - who had met former Chief Minister and party supremo Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi earlier in the day - said "the decision shall be taken by the party". Alam, who was the MLA from Jokihat seat in Araria, was suspended from the JD(U) two years ago following complaints that he had misbehaved with a couple while travelling by a Delhi-bound train. Tiwary said "the development marks a growing discontentment with Nitish Kumar's capitulation before the BJP.
No longer does the Chief Minister enjoy the upper hand like he used to in the past. More such developments are in the offing as has been indicated by outbursts of Jitan Ram Manjhi". The RJD vice-president was referring to the statement of Manjhi, the founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), earlier in the day that his party be allowed to contest the by-poll from Jahanabad assembly segment which has fallen vacant upon the death of RJD MLA Mundrika Yadav. The HAM is an NDA constituent and the seat had, in the 2015 assembly polls, gone to Rashtriya Lok Samata Party of Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.
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