BJP, RJD fight over Lalu’s ‘audio clip’

Amid the election of a new Bihar assembly speaker yesterday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal were involved in a political slugfest over an audio clip of an alleged phone conversation of jailed RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav with BJP lawmaker.

While the BJP claimed that Yadav was luring ruling alliance lawmakers with ministerial posts, the opposition RJD rubbished the charge and even questioned the authenticity of the clip.

However, BJP MLA Lallan Paswan, who features on the clip, vouched for its genuineness yesterday.

In the audio clip, Yadav, who is lodged at the Director’s Bungalow at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi for treatment, was allegedly heard congratulating Paswan on his election.

Yadav then allegedly asked Paswan to help the opposition party in the assembly speaker’s election and promised to make him a minister once the RJD came to power.

When Paswan pleaded that he was bound by party discipline, Yadav allegedly told him: “Abstain yourself from the assembly today. Say that you have coronavirus infection. We will see once our man gets elected as speaker.”

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi – who posted the audio clip on his official Twitter handle – accused Yadav of calling up newly-elected MLAs of the National Democratic Alliance to lure them.

On the other hand, the RJD said the allegation was “baseless”.

RJD leader Bhai Virendra accused Sushil Kumar Modi of talking on irrelevant things, adding that the BJP was trying to divert public attention from main issues.

BJP Bihar unit president Sanjay Jaiswal alleged that Yadav was “doing dirty politics” but would not succeed in his attempts to lure NDA MLAs.

“Now it is clear that the RJD wants to bring down the NDA government in Bihar through horse-trading.”