Come out of Lalu’s shadow, BJP leader tells Tejashwi Yadav

[RJD chief] Lalu [Yadav] himself has created a situation akin to the Samajwadi Party in the family, choosing to make his younger son the deputy to [Bihar CM] Nitish Kumar, wait and watch. SUSHIL KUMAR MODI, BJP leader

PATNA: A spat between a former Bihar chief minister, two deputy chief ministers — former and current — and the health minister has just turned ugly. BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday advised former chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s younger son, current deputy chief minister Tejashwi, to chart his own path.

“You will have to come out of the shadows of Lalu Prasad,” Modi said, pointing to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had chosen to dare his own father, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, and uncle Shivpal Yadav.

“Look at Akhilesh to learn,” Modi said, not missing that Lalu and Mulayam are relatives.

Modi’s remarks were linked to matrimonial choices before the two young Yadav brothers, with Tejashwi receiving 44,000 marriage proposals on a Whatsapp contact number that he had provided for complaints on bad roads.

Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son and health minister, had told reporters that the deputy chief minister being senior in the hierarchy should marry first

Modi apparently seized the opportunity to trigger a “junior senior” controversy, to which the RJD responded angrily.

“Lalu himself has created a situation akin to the Samajwad Party in the family, choosing to make his younger son the dep uty to Nitish Kumar, wait and watch…” the BJP leader said.

Tejashwi’s riposte was Mod is “unstable”. Tej Pratap’s was even more caustic, asking Mod to take care of his sons and get them married.

Lalu Prasad, the patriarch lost his cool too. “Modi has gone awry. His mouth is itching. He must have consumed ol (a tuber known to trigger mouth itch),” he said.

The BJP was not reacting though.