Lalu Prasad on his way to the rally in Forbesganj. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Bhagalpur, Sept. 4: Hitting the road after a gap of eight months was kind of a reality check for the RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, who started a march from 10 Circular Road today to address a rally on ITI campus at Forbesganj on Monday.

From his residence to Purnea — a stretch of more than 350km — Lalu prayed and spoke to the people, urging them to support him to remove Nitish Kumar from his seat of power.

“I will not sit quiet now and a new revolution will be triggered that will remove Nitish Kumar,” he told a crowd, which had assembled to hear him while he was on his way to Purnea.

Lalu’s fleet received a huge response in the hinterland and he kept stopping every 5 to 10km to meet villagers and supporters who poured in on the roads since morning.

His first stop was Kumrarh, where a musical group awaited to greet the former chief minister. But he did not oblige them by stepping out of his luxurious car but left the place after a few handshakes with the supporters from inside the vehicle. However, on catching a glance of the statue of well-known socialist Akshay Bat Rai at Vidupur block in Vaishali district, Lalu stepped out of his car and garlanded the statue.

He said: “I am going to Forbesganj to meet those innocent people whose relatives have been crushed by police on the direction of Nitish. The people of Bihar will never forgive him for such a heinous crime. I kept silent for six months but people should not think that I would sit quiet. A new revolution has begun which will throw the Nitish regime out of power.”

The RJD boss then halted his car at the Radha Krishna temple at Ufrol block in Vaishali. By the time he entered a Muslim-dominated area he had a cap on his head. He then met the supporters waiting for him at Bhagwanpur village under Sarairanjan block in Begusarai district. Sixty-year-old Sukhdev Yadav, a villager, said: “Bahut din baad Laluji road pe nikle hai. Achha laga (After a long time Lalu has hit the road. It was good).”