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[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: The secularists will see nothing wrong in such a blatantly communal programme.]
Patna: The battle for Muslims voters in Bihar has begun even though the dates of the assembly polls arte yet to be announced.
Launching his party's membership drive in Patna on Sunday, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said he was alone fighting communal forces in Bihar. "others (read Paswan and Nitish Kumar) have left," he declared.
"There are some persons who make tall claims on secularism. He (Paswan) was in the NDA government when communal violence took place in Gujarat and left it because he was divested of a key portfolio," he charged.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan has been moving around in Muslim, dominated areas like Kishanganj and Katihar attacking Lalu's claim on secularism. "His (Lalu's ) secularism is confined to keeping Rabri Devi as the chief minister," he told the gatherings in these two districts, recalling how he (Paswan) was even ready to compromise on his "no RJD" stand suggesting the name of Jabir Hussain as the chief minister.
Lalu, in retaliation, on Sunday spoke about a UPA battle against communal forces (NDA) in the assembly elections, while taking pot-shots at Paswan in the same breath. "They (LJP) said that they would shut Rabri Devi in a bungalow (LJP's election symbols) and throw it away in the sea. Now that bungalow has caught fire," he remarked. The RJD chief also held out a veiled threat to CPI which is showing reluctance to ally with RJF for the polls. "The CPM supported a joint UPA move. I want other Left parties to join. But I am not bothered if they don," he said, alleging that rebel LJP MLAs had gone to Jharkhand to sell themselves off at Rs 5 crore each.
The sharpening of attack on Paswan
comes at a time when the LJP chief is trying to rebuild his party after
the massive desertion by his MLAs. The initial response in Muslim-dominated
areas, according to local political observers, reveal that Paswan's
away over Muslims has not altogether vanished as the RJD chief would have
people believe. Paswan's talk about his candidates for the next polls being
mostly from among Muslims, Dalits and backward castes has sent alarm signals
in the RJD, "But in the end, the war of words between Lalu and Paswan
may just prove to be a tool to increase their bargaining power for seats
should the UPA constituents fight the polls unitedly," remarked an
RJD MP.
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