Sympathy hope of headless party

When RJD chief Lalu Prasad boarded the flight to Ranchi, some of his supporters in Patna were expecting a sympathy wave to bail out the party in the polls. Prabhunath Singh, the RJD MP from Maharajganj, said: “If Laluji remains in jail for two months, the RJD will win all the 40 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.” He recalled the party’s past performances every time Lalu went to jail. ot many RJD leaders shared Prabhunath’s hope for a sympathy wave, though. “If he gets bail after a few weeks in jail, it will not matter. It will be a disaster if he were to be jailed for months. We will virtually become a headless party. It is going to be very difficult to remote control a political party from Ranchi,” remarked a senior party leader. He remembered it was much easier to remote control the Rabri Devi-led government when Lalu was jailed in Patna.

Speed up

Rajniti Prasad, the RJD’s one-term Rajya Sabha MP, shot to fame when he snatched a copy of the Lokpal Bill from the Chair and tore it apart. On Sunday, he did not show the same speed though. He drove to 10 Circular Road to meet RJD chief Lalu Prasad before he left for Ranchi to appear for the fodder scam verdict. The security guard stopped him at the gate and told him Lalu had left. When Rajniti said he would like to meet the family members, the guard said they were not in a mood to meet anyone. Ultimately, the former MP drove to the Patna airport with a hope of meeting Lalu. “He should have shown the same speed he had in the Rajya Sabha when he tore up the Bill,” said an onlooker.

Too many faces

Passengers touching down at Patna airport on Sunday were in for a tough time. There was an avalanche of people at the airport with Lalu leaving for Ranchi, Chhedi Paswan returning from Gujarat and heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor making an appearance in the city. A passenger caught in the crowd said: “Suddenly, too many celebrities and VIPs surfaced at the airport. Lalu Prasad was there to catch a plane to Ranchi, while supporters of suspended JD(U) MLA Chhedi Paswan were ready to welcome him. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was also there. A bevy of girls turned up to catch a glimpse of Ranbir Kapoor and shouted: ‘Ranbir Kapoor I love you’. Chhedi’s supporters were raising slogans in favour of Narendra Modi and a few of Lalu supporters were also chipping in with slogans. We were left struggling to leave the airport, as the slogans jumbled up.”

Captive audience

Ajay Kumar, a JD(U) MLA’s husband, who has many criminal cases to his name, is not the only one aspiring to be a literary figure in the state. Jailed former MP Anand Mohan and former MP Pappu Yadav have the same aspiration. Anand Mohan’s book was recently released as was Pappu’s autobiography. Both “authors” said they had written the books during their incarceration, but insiders claimed they were ghost-written by two well-known Hindi litterateurs. One of them was even supposed to release the book but skipped the event when his well-wishers told him about the writer’s background.