New Delhi, Feb. 24: A marginalised RJD chief Lalu Prasad today sought to build bridges with the ruling establishment by going out of his way to extol the integrity of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Lalu Prasad vouched for the Prime Minister’s “personal integrity” and took digs at senior BJP leader L.K. Advani for levelling “unverified” allegations against Sonia Gandhi in the black money issue which he was compelled to withdraw.

“Agar pradhan mantriji ko koi bolta hai ki woh chor hai toh Lalu aur uska dal ye kabhi vishwas karne ke sthitee me nahi hai. Mai sarwajanik rup se bolta hoon ye imandar aadmi hai, sidhe aadmi hai (If anybody says that the Prime Minister is corrupt, Lalu and his party will never be in a position to accept it. I publicly declare that he (the PM) is an honest and straightforward man),” Lalu Prasad declared, shifting track from the Opposition’s all-out attack against the government during the discussion on the JPC motion.

Lalu Prasad then trained his guns on Advani and wondered how he could accuse a “senior leader” such as Sonia of having foreign bank accounts without verifying facts. “Advaniji ko Soniaji se maafi mangna pada. BJP ke andar isbar bada aakrosh hai ki jo hawa me chale the, Advaniji ne maafi mangke hawa nikal diya (Advani had to apologise to Sonia. The issue has generated lot of anger inside the BJP because they feel that by apologising he has punctured the prospects of the party),” Lalu Prasad said to applause from the treasury.

The RJD leader even recalled the uproar in Parliament over the Bofors scam and indirectly shielded former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. “They (Congress-BJP) are levelling allegations against each other. We have seen the Bofors days. The then government changed but the Congress returned to power again. We later saw that without the Bofors guns, our army would not have been able to take on the enemy,” he said.

Lalu Prasad’s desperation to strike a chord with the treasury benches was visible as he walked up and exchanged pleasantries with Sonia, Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee. Congress sources said he was even eager to get a place in the JPC but did not stand a chance as the RJD has just four Lok Sabha members.

From a key Congress ally and heavyweight minister in UPA I, Lalu Prasad has now been pushed to the political fringes after the Bihar debacle. He tried to strike an alliance with the Congress in the polls but was snubbed.