Lalu, Rabri back on RJD posters ahead of party's silver jubilee event

PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi were back on the party posters along with Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on the eve of the party’s silver jubilee function on Monday. However, Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap and daughter Misa Bharti were missing from the main poster put up outside the party headquarters here.
Though a separate poster of Tejashwi and Tej Pratap was put up in the evening, Misa remained missing. However, Tej Pratap was conspicuous by his absence on the first day of the two-day silver jubilee celebrations of the RJD foundation day at the party office here on Sunday.
During the 2020 Bihar assembly election, Lalu was nowhere on the official party posters. It was Tejashwi, who held the fort alone, inviting criticism from the JD(U) and BJP for “ignoring his parents for votes”. Lalu was then in jail in the fodder scam cases and political observers felt the move to keep him out of the frame was part of the strategy of Tejashwi to project himself with a clean image without any corruption baggage of his parents.
Since Lalu is out on bail and recuperating at the residence of his daughter Misa Bharti in Delhi, the RJD leaders and workers are overzealous in the hope that their political ‘chanakya’ of his time may bring back to power the RJD, which missed the bus by a thin margin in the last assembly elections with the Mahagathbandhan winning 110 seats against the four-party NDA with BJP and JD(U) as main components bagging 126 seats. The Asaduddin Owisi-led AIMIM, which surprisingly bagged five seats in the Seemanchal area, supports RJD on the floor of the House.
Taking a dig at the RJD, BJP spokesman Arvind Singh said Tejashwi can’t keep the party intact without Lalu and that’s why he brought his father back on the posters to celebrate its foundation day. “Why had Tejashwi apologised to the public during the assembly elections for any wrongdoings during the RJD (Lalu) regime? Even last year, Lalu was missing from the posters on the RJD foundation day. Then people had thought that a new era had begun in RJD. But the RJD posters with Lalu back in the frame are proof enough that the party is the same,” he said.
However, RJD spokesman Mritunjay Tiwari accused the NDA leaders of suffering from “Lalu phobia”. “We don’t indulge in poster politics. Laluji reigns in people’s hearts. During the last assembly election, Tejashwi was the bridegroom. He is Lalu’s ‘lal’, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. The NDA leaders have become anxious as they have a very thin majority and they fear of losing power," Tiwari said.