Patna: The mandate in Bihar is against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will impact national politics, RJD leader Lalu Prasad said on Monday.
“The mandate we have got is to fight Delhi, Modi,” the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former chief minister told the media, a day after the Grand Alliance routed the BJP combine in assembly polls. “Communal and fascist forces are ruling Delhi. To keep them in power even for one more day will amount to breaking up the country,” he said. “This is my view, others may agree or not,” he added.
The RJD leader reiterated that the sweeping victory of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the RJD and Congress over the four-party combine of the BJP would impact national politics. Lalu Prasad blamed the Modi government for rising prices of food and even train and air travel. “Traders and businessmen are terrorized today. Nobody is feeling safe. Everyone is terrorized.” He said the reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2014 Lok Sabha election was because its leaders “fooled everyone” with false promises.
“They talked about ‘achche din, achche din’ but such bad days have come.” He also criticized political pundits and analysts who called him “chara chor (fodder thief)” and “criminal” in television debates, saying his win would mark a return of “jungle raj” in Bihar. “We have taken this in bad taste,” he said. “I want to tell all these people to try to understand Bihar better. Ultimately, people are the best judge.”
Lalu Prasad again thanked the people of Bihar for giving the Grand Alliance a landslide win and said the coalition government in the state “will work fine under Nitish Kumar’s leadership”. “We will use Bihar’s resources properly, we will also fight against Delhi for our rights.”
