DNA samples to go by post

The last time the JDU took its protest to New Delhi, it was about one crore signatures to demand special status for Bihar. The party had then rented two buses and asked state party chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh to accompany the signatures till Delhi to submit the same to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This time, when it plans to take samples of nails and hair of 50 lakh people for DNA testing, it has taken a shortcut. "The samples, clipped with post cards, will be collected and posted," remarked a JDU leader, stressing that there was no need for Bashishtha to again take a bus to New Delhi. "Besides, we know that just as the signatures rotted away in New Delhi, these samples, too, would be thrown away by the Prime Minister's Office," he added, stressing that DNA sample and signature campaign was all politics and everybody knows what happens when these things reach their destination.

Sweets find ticket to Lalu

RJD chief Lalu Prasad has a weakness for sweets, something doctors have advised him against having as he suffers from diabetes. However, with Assembly elections round the corner, 10 Circular Road is flooded with sweets. "Ticket-seekers have been making a beeline with packets of sweets. Laluji usually scolds them and asks security personnel to have them thrown out, declaring that he knows they have only come to seek tickets to contest. But the sweets these ticket-seekers take along remains with Lalu and he is known to eat a bit before they are taken away from him," said an RJD leader, expressing concern for the RJD chief's health as he literally gorges on the sweets. But then ticket-seekers usually know which food pleases their leaders. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan has a weakness for fish. "So those seeking LJP tickets turn up with fishes," remarked an LJP leader.

IAS fraud allegation

A retired IAS officer left eminent personalities red-faced at a public function recently. "Lalu Prasad was a fraud. Nitish Kumar was a bigger fraud and the one coming after the Assembly elections will be the biggest fraud," he said from the stage. The organiser was quick to ask the retired IAS officer to cut short his speech. "God knows what he would have said had he continued," said a participant of the function. He stressed that the former IAS officer had a reputation for saying embarrassing things from public platforms and should not have been called to the meeting.

Missed the bus

Dissident JDU MLAs who are on their way to hop onto the BJP bus appear to have missed it, as far as presence of top leaders during their joining ceremony is concerned. "We had told them that if they wanted to join they should have joined in July itself. Now that they are ready, our top leaders, like Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav, are too busy in their tour programmes. They will have to do with the presence of state party chief Mangal Pandey," remarked a senior BJP leader.