In his inimitable style, Mr Prasad approached the patients and started asking them about the services in the hospital. He even inspected several wards. (File photo)
Patients and doctors at Patna's Indira Gandhi Medical Institute had a surprise visitor on Sunday - Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad.
Most thought he had come to visit an ailing patient. But the Director of the Institute and other senior doctors soon realized that the former chief minister and the father of the current health minister, Tej Pratap Yadav, was on a surprise raid.
In his inimitable style, Mr Prasad approached the patients and started asking them about the services in the hospital. He even inspected several wards.
The visit could leave the Nitish Kumar government red-faced as the Opposition BJP is expected to target the 'extra-constitutional authority'.
Doctors say over the last 10 years, neither Chief Minister Nitish Kumar nor any of his officials have called the hospital for a favour. If any help is required, the request is made through the designated health department officials, a senior doctor said.
But Mr Prasad is far from being apologetic about the fact-finding mission to the hospital where he spent several months at a VIP room in 1997, after he was remanded to judicial custody in fodder scam in 1997.
"I went to meet a patient in Private Hospital and on the way back stopped at IGIMS to see the conditions," he told NDTV.
Last week, a senior leader of the RJD -- part of the Grand Alliance that trounced the BJP in the state elections -- embarrassed the government by directly criticizing the chief minister over the law and order situation.
The JDU and RJD had come together ending years of acrimony and formed the government in Bihar last month. But in a threat to the newfound amity, RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had said law and order was not good in the state and it was upto "Nitish Kumar, who is sitting on the driver's seat of the government... to check further slide."