Tej Pratap Yadav Meets Father Lalu Prasad in RIMS, Retracts Comment on Raghubansh Singh

Senior RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav on Thursday visited his jailed father Lalu Prasad and after a reprimand from him for his utterances against senior party leader Raghubansh Prasad Singh, described the former union minister as "guardian" against whom he bore no ill feeling.

Yadav stayed for nearly two and a half hours with Prasad in the director's bunglow of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, where the RJD chief was shifted recently as precautionary measure for Covid-19.

The RJD chief who has been convicted in several cases of multi-crore fodder scam is lodged in RIMS, Ranchi. Emerging out of the RIMS, Yadav told reporters that Singh was a "guardian" to him to whom he talks regularly.

Yadav, elder son of Prasad, had made castigating remarks against the former union minister recently over his resignation from RJD's vice president post in protest against efforts to induct muscleman former LJP MP Rama Singh into the party, saying "RJD is an ocean and Singh is like a mug of water of it whose coming/going will have no impact on the party."

Prasad is believed to have chided his son for unsavoury comment on Singh and asked him to refrain from making such statements during election time. Singh, who served as union rural development minister in UPA I and a long time companion of the RJD supremo, anger had further aggravated after Yadav's remark and there was speculations in the political circle that he might quit the party.

Yadav is also understood to have discussion with his father about assembly election in Bihar due in October-November. His father-in-law Chandrika Roy recently left RJD to join JD(U) and has hinted that his daughter Aishwarya might enter in the poll fray.

Yadav's marriage with Aishwarya has broken and their divorce case is pending with a Patna court. The former Health minister of Bihar is currently MLA from Mahua in Vaishali district and there is speculations in the media that his estranged wife might fight against him in the election.

Yadav was allowed to go inside RIMs in Ranchi only after he tested negative in rapid antigen test for coronavirus, sources in the state-run hospital said. There has been reports of skirmishes between Yadav'ssupporters and locals who protested the road jam created bythem outside the hospital.

BJP spokesman Pratul Shadeo demanded action against Yadav and his supporters over the incident.