NEW DELHI, 21 December 2004 — Caught by television cameras doling out cash ahead of state elections, Indian Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav denied any wrongdoing and maintained the money was for poor people to buy sweets, a report said yesterday.

However, his opponents have threatened to take the issue to the election commission which last week announced elections would be held in February in the federal minister’s power-base of Bihar in eastern India.

The BJP displayed its strong stand against Lalu by walking out of the Lok Sabha yesterday.

“We are walking out of the house as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not here to explain the conduct of his colleague,” BJP deputy leader Vijay Malhotra said.

Malhotra also raised the issue before the question hour in the Lok Sabha. He said that the whole country had seen Lalu distributing hundred-rupee notes to slum dwellers while asking them to come to Patna to attend the RJD rally on Thursday.

“My supporters are the poor, the downtrodden and the Dalits (lowest caste in the Hindu hierarchy),” The Indian Express newspaper quoted Lalu as saying.

“I just gave them some money to buy sweets. I don’t think I have violated any election code,” which outlaws vote buying.

“I did not take money after all, you know. Someone asked me for money and I gave it,” he said after rallying support at Bhiti in eastern Bihar state on Saturday.

The daily said at least two television channels filmed the scene in which Lalu was heard to say, “You buy sweets with this,” as he dished out 100 rupee notes ($2.2) from a bundle on his lap.

About 40 percent of India’s population lives on less than a dollar a day, according to World Bank figures.

The election commission announced that provincial elections would be held in Bihar in three phases in February.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sushil Kumar Modi said his group would petition the election commission to enforce its code of conduct.

But The Times of India quoted Lalu as saying he would remain unaffected. “I am not a radish which can be uprooted,” he said. “They have tried for the last 15 years to throw out the government. Each time they bite the dust.”

Lalu and his Rashtriya Janata Dal party have ruled Bihar state since 1991.

The flamboyant minister enjoys the adulation of many low-caste voters, but opponents accuse him of running Bihar like a personal fiefdom.

His wife Rabri Devi was installed as chief minister after Lalu was forced to quit following a corruption case in 1996, and still holds the post.

Lalu decided in June to change the spelling of his first name to Lalu and dropped his surname altogether, on advice from astrologers.

Bihar, with a population of more than 80 million, languishes as India’s most lawless state, reporting an average of 5,000 murders, 12,000 robberies and hundreds of abductions for ransom every year.