Shell talk

After Sunday's RJD rally in Gandhi Maidan, former health minister Tej Prasad Yadav has become a talking point here for blowing the conch shell and the speech he made. The JDU dubbed Tej as a political joker, but the RJD is taking him seriously.

"Tej said the conch shell was a war cry against the BJP. But actually it may be a battle against his own brother. Till now he was seen as the brother who could not speak in public. But the way he spoke he got more applause than Tejashwi. In fact Tej was not listed as a speaker. Lalu had asked him to blow the conch shell and leave. But Tej delivered a speech that reminded the crowd of Lalu's youth. It was not for nothing that Tej introduced himself as Lord Krishna and Tejashwi his Arjun," said an RJD leader in private.

Unwelcome spy

A section of RJD leaders swear they saw Lalu's out of favour brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav at Gandhi Maidan during the rally. He did not enter the Maidan but viewed the proceedings from his car," said an RJD leader, recalling how both brothers-in-law, Sadhu and Subhash, used to hold centrestage during rallies organised before 2005, when they fell out of favour. "I'm relieved Sadhu was watching from the sidelines and not the stage. The muscle power they flexed was the main reason we lost power," the RJD leader said.

Mamata name

State RJD chief Ram Chandra Purbey got Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's name wrong in his address. Purbey called for Mamata Mukherjee instead of Banerjee. It angered Lalu, who berated Purbey for getting the name of the only chief minister on the stage wrong. Purbey corrected himself.

The unlucky family member

Four members of Lalu's family addressed the RJD rally - including the RJD chief. After Rabri Devi spoke, quite a few people thought even Lalu's daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharati would address the rally. But her name was not called and the fifth member of the family was not so lucky even though she occupied the front seat on the stage, seated between former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and Robert Vadra's relative Tehseen Poonawalla. Misa was seen chatting with Tehseen.