File photo of Lalu Prasad.
New Delhi:
For two decades, the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was a giant on India's political stage. He ran a state of over 100 million people for almost a decade, took charge of the country's massive rail network and used his party as a crucial prop for the shaky UPA government at the Centre.
Today, the political heavyweight from Bihar lost his Lok Sabha membership, following a recent Supreme Court order. Earlier this month, Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years in jail for corruption in a 17-year-old case involving embezzlement of Rs 970 crore spent in fictitious fodder and medicines for the animals. (The rise and fall of a maverick politician)
Janata Dal-United's Jagdish Sharma was the other politician to be disqualified today from the Lok Sabha after being convicted in the scam.
The two leaders are the first Lok Sabha members to be disqualified after the Supreme Court order, which ordered immediate disqualification from parliament and state legislatures of lawmakers convicted for criminal offences punishable with a jail term of more than two years.
The judgment had forced the ruling Congress to bring in an ordinance aimed at protecting Mr Prasad, a move jettisoned publicly by the party's number two Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress's Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood was the first leader to be disqualified from parliament, following his conviction in a corruption case.
With Mr Prasad lodged in a Ranchi jail, 350 kms away from Bihar's capital Patna, the question of who leads his party ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, due by May, haunts his family. His two sons have hinted that they too may want to manage the party.
These factors coupled with the RJD's declining stocks in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections raises doubts on whether the party will be able to maintain a united front for long.
Today, the political heavyweight from Bihar lost his Lok Sabha membership, following a recent Supreme Court order. Earlier this month, Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years in jail for corruption in a 17-year-old case involving embezzlement of Rs 970 crore spent in fictitious fodder and medicines for the animals. (The rise and fall of a maverick politician)
Janata Dal-United's Jagdish Sharma was the other politician to be disqualified today from the Lok Sabha after being convicted in the scam.
The two leaders are the first Lok Sabha members to be disqualified after the Supreme Court order, which ordered immediate disqualification from parliament and state legislatures of lawmakers convicted for criminal offences punishable with a jail term of more than two years.
The judgment had forced the ruling Congress to bring in an ordinance aimed at protecting Mr Prasad, a move jettisoned publicly by the party's number two Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress's Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood was the first leader to be disqualified from parliament, following his conviction in a corruption case.
With Mr Prasad lodged in a Ranchi jail, 350 kms away from Bihar's capital Patna, the question of who leads his party ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, due by May, haunts his family. His two sons have hinted that they too may want to manage the party.
These factors coupled with the RJD's declining stocks in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections raises doubts on whether the party will be able to maintain a united front for long.
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