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Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said that railway minister Lalu Prasad and his RJD colleagues in the mamohan Singh government were "dragging down" the image of the congress-led UPA minister.
Paswan told TOI that while the renunciation of the PM's post by Sonia Gandhi and premiere Manmohan Singh's integrity were positives for the UPA, the coalition's image was going downhill due to the RJD presence in government.
In what is the first expression of uneasiness by a cabinet minister over the 'tainted' ministers' controversy, Paswan said: "It is because of RJD that BJP, which was bereft of any issue after the elections, has threatened to turn on the heat on 'tainted ministers' yet again".
Paswan was scathing over what he said was Lalu Prasad's 15 years of misrule in Bihar. While he would welcome a tie-up with congress, he said he was ready to contest on his own if Sonia Gandhi did not strike a deal with his Lok Janshakti Party for the coming elections.
He said he was not the only UPA partner with reservations over Lalu, "CPI is opposed to him. Ninety per cent of Congressmen do not want an alliance with him," Paswan stressed. He did not see any contradiction in his plans to fight the Bihar elections against Lalu while sitting in the manmohan Singh ministrymwith RJD nominees.
"Politics of the Centre is different from politics of state," he said., "I am sitting on a bigger pile of transferable votes. If Lalu has 10% backward votes, I can swing 15% votes as the last elections showed." Paswan claimed. He felt that minorities were also disillusioned with Lalu but were stuck with him because they could not vote BJP. In LJP they would have a secular alternative. He said that he wanted to eliminate the distinction between 'dalits' and 'most backward castes' in Bihar.
Recalling his resignation from NDA
on the Gujarat issue. Paswan said "Everybody knows that it was a principled
stand. I had nothing to do with Gujarat politics. I had resigned only because
I was deeply anguished by the riots there. In most Bihar constituencies.
LJP will soon become the number one anti-BJP formation."
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