Leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said that the Indian democracy was “under attack” and the people should decide very carefully whom to vote for, otherwise they might be “cheated again” like in the previous election.

Tejashwi was addressing a public meeting at Gandhi Maidan in Daltonganj of the Palamu Lok Sabha seat on Saturday, after attending the nomination paper filing of Ghuran Ram, RJD candidate from the Palamu parliamentary constituency.

The RJD leader, son of imprisoned RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, said, “The people apprehend that if [Narendra] Modi is voted to power again, he would scrap elections. There will be no future elections.”

He asked party workers and supporters to strictly adhere to the RJD ideology of ‘Modi Bhagao, Desh Bachao’ (Remove Modi, save democracy).

“Only RJD can stop Modi as we have managed to face the crackdown unleashed by the Modi government against our family members. My father, mother, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and their parents all have been falsely implicated to prevent us from serving the poor, the downtrodden, and the voiceless,” thundered the Bihar scion.

In his address, Tejashwi also criticised Giriraj Singh, Union minister and BJP leader from Bihar, for asking residents of India to go to Pakistan. He said, “Ye desh kisi ke baap ka nahi hai (This country is not anybody’s ancestral property).”

The opposition presented a united picture in Palamu, where a direct fight is expected between RJD and BJP, even as leaders from the Congress, JMM and JVM(P) attended the public meeting.

Former minister and Congress leader KN Tripathy, RJD Jharkhand chief Gautam Sagar Rana, JVM(P) leader Dilip Singh Namdhari and JMM leader Mithilesh Thakur were among those present during the programme.

First Published: Apr 07, 2019 11:45 IST