New Delhi:
Senior RJD leader Ram Kripal Yadav today resigned from all party posts after being denied a ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Mr Yadav was overlooked for the Pataliputra constituency which went to Misa Bharti, the daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
"I have resigned from all party posts with a heavy heart," Mr Yadav said, adding he was still very much with the RJD "as of now". The Rajya Sabha MP, though, was quick to add that "all options are open".
This was in response to questions on whether he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has been a subject of intense speculation ever since Mr Yadav declared that he would quit the party. It followed Mr Prasad's announcement earlier this week that his first-born would contest next month's national election from Pataliputra in Bihar.
Mr Yadav slammed that decision, accusing the party of being more interested in serving "family justice" than social justice for which it was formed.
He also scoffed at Ms Bharti's visit to his residence yesterday in New Delhi as an "emotional atyachar (blackmail) or a political stunt". That trip was viewed as attempts by the RJD to mollify a furious Mr Yadav.
But the young leader immediately hit back at her father's once-trusted lieutenant, saying it was he who was indulging in "
nautanki" (drama), making it clear that "she will contest the polls".
Misa Bharti - who gets her unusual name from the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), the law under which her father was jailed during the 1975-77 Emergency - is among 23 candidates named by the RJD.
In 2009, Mr Yadav had given up Pataliputra to allow Mr Prasad to contest from there. The RJD chief had contested from both Chhapra and Patliputra; he had defeated the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Chhapra, but lost to Ranjan Prasad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) in Pataliputra.