Patna: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who has levelled a series of allegations against Lalu Prasad and his family, mocked at the RJD leader's conversion to vegetarianism.

"Lalu's troubles will not end till he doesn't repent for his mistakes, seeks forgiveness from the public and surrenders his benami property to the probe agencies. Just quitting non-vegetarian food will have no effect. Habits of corruption and eating non-vegetarian food do not go easily," Modi said.

Astrologer-cum-pandit Shankar Charan Tripathi, on whose advice Lalu is believed to have made the change, said that by not eating non-vegetarian food, the RJD chief will become pure and will do good work for the people, automatically.

Tripathi, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, has offered a lot of advice to Lalu and his family, sources close to Lalu said. Lalu trusts him and has been putting into practise his advice over the past two years.

It was Tripathi, for example, who had advised Lalu to give up wearing his white kurta and stick to the green one prior to the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls. Lalu, in alliance with Nitish Kumar, won a spectacular victory.

Apart from astrology, Tripathi is also a palmist and a tantrik. He had predicted that Lalu would come to power and both his sons would become ministers.

This is not the first time Lalu has turned vegetarian. In 2013 he had stopped eating fish and mutton to please Lord Shiva. However, he soon resumed eating them.

Lalu's close aide and former MP, Shivanand Tiwari said, "Laluji has stopped eating non-vegetarian food for the last one month. He has turned a complete vegetarian."