Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti to contest national election
Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti today had an upset lawmaker of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) running from his own home in Delhi.
On Thursday, as Lalu announced that his first-born would contest next month's national election from Patliputra in Bihar, RJD MP Ram Kirpal Yadav declared that he would quit. Mr Yadav, who has been close to Lalu Prasad for over two decades, had wanted to contest from Patliputra.
Today, Misa Bharti made her first attempt at political peacekeeping, and went to Mr Yadav's house, but he left in a hurry, without meeting her. She has decided to wait on him.
"I came to see Ram Kirpal
chacha (uncle). I heard from media reports that he unhappy with my candidature from Patliputra. When I came, he left. I am ready to give up my candidature. I won't leave without speaking to him. Eventually he will return home," she told NDTV.
Hours later, when Mr Yadav didn't return, she said she was not disheartened. "I will come again," she declared.
Reports suggest Mr Yadav is headed toward the BJP.
Misa - 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.
The 37-year-old is the oldest of nine siblings. Lalu Prasad's sons, Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi, are active in party politics but are both too young to contest elections.
In 2009, Ram Kirpal Yadav had given up Patliputra to allow Lalu 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 Patliputra.
Lalu, 65, cannot contest this year's elections as he was convicted last year by a special CBI court in a fodder scam case.