Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, who stands disqualified to contest any public election and is not even on the electoral rolls, will be the authority to distribute RJD symbols to the party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar and Jharkhand. Several criminals have contested the elections from judicial custody earlier, but for the first time, a man sentenced to 22.5 years jail in four cases is deciding the candidates and allotting statutory party symbols from judicial custody.
Lalu, first convicted in fodder scam in October 2013 for five years by a special CBI court, was unseated from Lok Sabha following his sentence and under the amended People’s Representation Act, was declared disqualified to contest any election. Later, he was sentenced in three other fodder scam cases in 2017 and 2018 and according to the judgements, the total sentence is for 3.5 years and seven years each. He faces over 22 years sentence under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption act and Indian Penal Code.
The RJD at its meeting here had authorised Lalu to decide the names of the candidates and also distribute party symbol authority slips. Suggestion of some party leaders to authorise RJD vice-president Rabri Devi or leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was rejected and Lalu got the full authority. Lalu is not only authorised to distribute symbols to his party nominees, but authorised to negotiate with other partners of the Grand Alliance on seat sharing and naming their candidates too. In 2009, Lalu was defeated from Patliputra constituency by JDU candidate Ranjan Prasad Yadav and elected from Saran defeating the former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP. He could not contest the 2015 assembly elections or 2014 Lok Sabha elections following his conviction.
