File photo of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav
The anti-BJP alliance in Bihar is living upto its reputation of an unhappy collaboration, with Lalu Yadav disclosing that he will not attend partner Rahul Gandhi's rally on Saturday.
Lalu, as he is known, is not staging a protest, said his party. "Where is the controversy? It's a busy time for Laluji and he is the largest vote-getter for the alliance, so if he had a problem with Rahul Gandhi, he could have created roadblocks earlier too in the alliance," said party spokesperson Manoj Jha.
Lalu had
earlier skipped an iftaar dinner in Delhi hosted by Mr Gandhi's mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, reportedly because he was upset about the prominence bestowed upon Nitish Kumar, the presumptive Chief Minister of the Janata Parivaar or Grand Alliance, constructed to prevent the BJP from winning the state in next month's election.
In 2013, after he was convicted of corruption, Lalu was
disqualified as a parliamentarian, according to new rules of the Supreme Court. Mr Gandhi's Congress party at the time led the national coalition, and planned to use an executive order or ordinance to circumvent the Supreme Court verdict, a move that would have helped Lalu, who often sided with the government in crucial votes in Parliament. But at a press conference, Mr Gandhi
dramatically ripped up the order, ensuring the ordinance was abandoned.
Lalu's son, Tejaswi Yadav, will represent their party at Mr Gandhi's rally.
The 'Grand Alliance' combined Lalu's RJD, the Congress, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Saamajwadi Party, and the Janata Dal United headed by Nitish Kumar, who is running for a third term as Chief Minister.
Recently,
Mulayam Singh pulled his party from the arrangement, claiming that it was not being offered enough seats for the election. Then, there were three.
Yesterday, the
BJP and its partners announced they had finalised how they are dividing up the 243 seats of Bihar. The PM is leading the alliance's campaign in Bihar, and has been drawing large audiences.