Lalu Prasad sought Jaitley help to topple Nitish govt: Sushil Kumar Modi

PATNA: Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) on Wednesday claimed that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had sought Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s help in 2017 to “manage” the CBI in his favour and he would topple the Nitish Kumar government.
“At all critical moments in his political life, right from the Patna University Students’ Union election in 1973 when he took help of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad to secure victory, Lalu has always taken the help of the RSS and its associated bodies,” SuMo said and added that Lalu’s criticism of RSS was only aimed at taking political mileage in the parliamentary election.
SuMo recalled the help given by the Bharatiya Jana Sangh to the socialists in government formation at the Centre and in Bihar in 1977 and later by the BJP to him in 1990 when he formed government in Bihar with its support. “Lalu had taken letter of support from the then state BJP president Kailash Pati Mishra and handed it over to the governor and formed the government in the state with its support,” SuMo said.
Pointing to the fodder scam cases in which Lalu was convicted, SuMo said the RJD chief told Jaitley in 2017 that he was in a position to split away a section of Nitish’s JD(U) legislators. He said Jaitley had politely refused Lalu’s plea and told him that the CBI was an “autonomous institution over which the government did not have any control”.
As to the fodder scam cases, SuMo said first Lalu’s political confidant and Rajya Sabha member Prem Chand Gupta called on Jaitley and sought his help to manage the CBI after it went into an appeal in the Supreme Court to challenge the Jharkhand high court order that there was no need to hold separate trials in the fodder scam cases. Later, both Lalu and Gupta met Jaitley a couple of times to pursue the matter.
The Supreme Court on May 8, 2017, had overturned the Jharkhand HC order, saying separate trials were required as the cases were different and separate treasuries, men and money were involved, SuMo said and added that Lalu has to serve the jail term for 27 years.
“Lalu can bend and prostrate and go to any extent to pursue his interest, even if it required seeking help from the RSS and its affiliated bodies in the past,” SuMo said.
JD(U) endorsed the SuMo’s claims. “Yes, it is true that Lalu had gone to the RSS and sought the help from the BJP at various crucial stages in his public life. He also wanted to influence the CBI when it went into appeal in the Supreme Court in the fodder scam case. Yes, he did promise to the senior BJP leaders in Delhi to topple the Nitish government by breaking the JD(U) legislature party,” state JD(U) president Bashishth Narayan Singh said.
“Lalu is in jail in the fodder scam cases, but he has also been trying to influence the elections by issuing statements and vomiting poison against the RSS. He also conducted the seat-sharing exercise in the Grand Alliance from jail, besides selecting RJD candidates,” SuMo alleged.
When asked about Lalu’s claim in his autobiography published recently that Nitish had sent his emissary and election strategist Prashant Kishor to explore if JD(U) could be merged with the RJD to form a non-NDA government in Bihar, SuMo said, “Kishor has given his version. I don’t need to add anything to that.”
Observers felt that SuMo’s allegations were aimed at influencing the Muslim voters to wean them away from the RJD-led Grand Alliance in favour of JD(U) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidates in the fray. Muslim electorates are expected to play significant role in the Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnia, Katihar and Kishanganj constituencies going to the polls on Thursday. Besides, there are at least nine other such constituencies up to the seventh phase.