Sonia, Rahul, Mayawati to stay away from Lalu’s mega rally
IT IS BELIEVED THAT THE TOP LEADERSHIP OF THE CONGRESS IS NOT KEEN TO SHARE THE DAIS WITH LALU PRASAD DUE TO THE CORRUPTION TAINT HE IS FACING
A galaxy of leaders is expected to attend the RJD’s ‘Desh Bachao, BJP Bhagao’ rally at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday. The event, however, has lost its sheen after Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BSP chief Mayawati decided to give it a miss.
Despite the ‘cold shoulder’, the significance of the rally — the first major step against the BJP by the Yadav chieftain who is facing corruption charges and loss of power in Bihar after CM Nitish Kumar chose to align with the BJP — cannot be undermined.
The event is being seen as an attempt by the RJD to prepare itself to consolidate its MuslimYadav and OBC vote bank in a bid to counter the BJP-JD(U) combine in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Prasad had invited leaders of all 17 political parties, who joined the Congress-led opposition unity meetings in July before the presidential polls, to protest against vendetta politics and the communal agenda of the BJP.
The RJD chief has received support from TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who has been targeting the BJP for harassing her party leaders in corruption cases. Banerjee, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, are among the prominent politicians expected to attend the event, even as the Congress will be represented by senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Chaudhary and former chief ministers of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi (JVM) and Hemant Soren (JMM) are also expected in attendance.
The highlight though will be the presence of JD(U)’s estranged leader Sharad Yadav, who will attend the event despite threats of expulsion from the party. Yadav could face disqualification from the RS for his ‘anti-party’ stand and trigger a split in the JD(U).
Yadav had also organised a three-day Jan Adalat programme to slam Kumar for betraying people’s trust and to claim that the mahagathbandhan was still intact. “If RJD invites me, I will attend the event. This is an event of grand alliance as it will be represented by RJD, Congress and other parties,” he had said.
Prasad is expected to go on an offensive against the Nitish-BJP combine over the Srijan scam to question the JD(U) strongman’s zero-tolerance policy on corruption, a premise on which he snapped ties with grand alliance.
However, his manoeuvring to emerge stronger in national politics seems to have suffered a big setback with Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi skipping his event. It is believed that the Congress’ top leaders are still not keen to share the dais with Prasad due to the latter’s corruption taint.