A mass public rally on a Sunday at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Bihar’s Patna, hosted by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), witnessed thousands sloganeering in support of the INDIA alliance ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Rahul Gandhi, who interrupted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Madhya Pradesh to make it to Patna, were present at the event. The leaders, including former UP Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s General Secretary D. Raja, and CPI(ML)’s Chief Dipankar Bhattacharya, attended the event.
“We gave everyone izzat,” RJD supremo Lalu Yadav said.
He went on to say: “In 1990s, backward classes were kept away from representation. We gave them power. In this Gandhi Maidan only we brought all backward classes and told them to address rallies and not just in Bihar but in all of country we applied Mandal Commission. As a result, those who call themselves big people can not show eyes to the poor. At that time there used to be wells. If anyone from upper caste used a well and a lower caste tried to use that well, then they were shooed away. The well was emptied and was only used when all the water was thrown away.”
“I say here, at Gandhi maidan, with confidence that BJP will be ousted at the incoming polls. Dilli pe qabza karna hai,” said the veteran socialist leader.
Lalu has fiercely attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that PM Modi talks about familyism these days. “You don’t have any family. You don’t even follow Hindu tradition,” he said.
Oh Nitish, Lalu said: “I never abused Nitish Kumar, I just said he is paltu Ram (pet). Second time, I erred, Tejashwi erred too, as he came to us, but he went back to take refuge at Modi’s feet. Is he not ashamed to see all the memes we get on the phone?”
In his speech, former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav spoke of “chacha palat gaye” referring to Nitish Kumar’s switch to the Hindutva camp.
Tejashwi spoke of his father, then-Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s “record of putting the Indian Railways into a profit mode”, taunting PM Modi for India’s dubious performance in the sector lashing out at its privatisation.
The RJD leader spoke of R for Rights, J for Jobs and D for Development as the meaning of RJD.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led “Union government was neglecting 73 per cent of the country’s population, which belongs to marginalised sections of the society.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also present at the event, claimed that the INDIA bloc will win the maximum number of seats in the polls. He said that the Opposition was not scared of central agencies ED, CBI and I-T, which were being “misused against them”.
“For the prosperity of the country and to protect the Constitution, the Modi government must be voted out,” he added.
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