NEW DELHI/PATNA, 14 September 2005 — Calling on Bihar voters to give his Rashtriya Janata Dal “one more chance,” party chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad began his campaign for assembly elections yesterday.
Targeting his political rivals in Bihar, Lalu said: “I have embarked on the yatra (journey) to expose the National Democratic Alliance and the Lok Janshakti Party.” He charged communal and fascist forces, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United), with trying to grab power by “hook or by crook.”
His campaign is devoted to gharib chetna, or waking up the poor. Senior party leaders accompanying Lalu, include RJD spokesman Shivanand Tiwari and federal Minister Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav.
In this first phase of campaigning, Lalu will be addressing public rallies at Bihta, Koilwar, Chandi, Jamira, Ara, Bibiganj, Shahpur, Brahmpur, Raghunathpur, Kuran Sarai and Dumraon.
Dismissing the suggestion of campaigning by helicopter, Lalu said: “I will go by road to villages, where my voters live.”
RJD spokesman Tiwari said Lalu did not want to be alienate his constituency by using a helicopter. “Lalu will now turn his campaign into a roadshow,” Tiwari said.
At his first campaign stop at Bihta, Lalu indirectly accused the Election Commission of victimizing Muslim and lower caste officers. “It is unfortunate that transfers and postings reflect caste and religious bias. Muslims and Yadavs in the police are being handpicked and shunted out.”
Over 50 police officers have been removed on “frivolous” charge that they had enjoyed “bright postings” during the RJD rule, Lalu said.
Rejecting BJP-led NDA’s charge that his party had been in power for 15 years “by manipulating and misusing official machinery,” Lalu said his party had been in power not because of certain officials but “because of people’s unflinching faith in social justice and secularism.”
Lalu asked the people to cast their votes in favor of “lantern” (RJD-symbol), “clock” ( NCP), “hand” (of Congress) and “hammer and sickle” (of the CPI-M).
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has pulled up Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for announcing certain sops in Bihar amounting to the violation of a model code of conduct.
Asking him to respond to its notice by Sept. 16, the commission held that his “promises to the electorate of Bihar on Sept. 8 amounted to violation of the model code.”
The commission notice followed complaints by some television channels that he had flouted the code by promising to the electorate at a public meeting in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district that the government would establish sugar mills in the state to improve the lot of sugarcane farmers.
The TV channels also alleged that the minister promised to restart a number of idle sugar mills, starting with the Motipur Sugar Mill immediately after the elections.
