Lalu Prasad Yadav’s ‘samdhi’ among three RJD MLAs join JD(U)

PATNA: The Lalu Prasad-led RJD on Thursday received a major jolt ahead of the assembly polls with three more MLAs, including Lalu’s ‘samdhi’ Chandrika Rai, joining the JD(U).
Son of the former Bihar CM Daroga Prasad Rai, Chandrika is the father of Aishwarya Rai, who is married to Lalu’s elder son and former health minister Tej Pratap. Two other MLAs who joined JD(U) are the Paliganj MLA Jaivardhan Yadav and the Keoti MLA Dr Faraz Fatmi.
While Jaivardhan is the grandson of former Union minister and prominent Yadava leader Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav; Faraz, a doctor by profession, is the son of former Union minister MAA Fatmi. These MLAs belonging to well-known political families have a significant influence on the electors in their respective areas.
The joining programme took place at the JD(U)’s state headquarters here in the presence of the state’s energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, parliamentary affairs minister Shravan Kumar and food and consumer protection minister Madan Sahni.
“Bijendra Yadav formally inducted all three MLAs in the JD(U) by offering them membership of the party,” JD(U) state general secretary (headquarters) Navin Kumar Arya told TOI.“RJD is known as the party of Muslims and Yadavas (M-Y) combination. With the entry of two Yadav MLAs (Chandrika and Jaivardhan) and one Muslim MLA (Faraz), the M-Y combination virtually came into the fold of the JD(U) which is the party of A to Z castes and social groups,” Arya explained. Earlier on Monday, three other RJD MLAs—Maheshwar Prasad Yadav (Gaighat assembly constituency), Prema Choudhary (Patepur-reserved) and Ashok Kumar (Sasaram) had joined the JD(U) after deserting the Lalu Prasad’s party. With this development, altogether 11 RJD legislators have left Lalu’s party to join Nitish's party in the past two months. On June 23, RJD’s five MLCs had defected to the JD(U).
Though reports about Chandrika and Faraz joining the RJD were doing the rounds in Bihar political circles for the last several weeks, the case of Jaivardhan has come as a surprise for the RJD leadership. “ No one in the RJD had expected such a move by the grandson of the great Yadava leader Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav,” a senior RJD leader said.