Raghvendra, Siddiqui

The sight of the RJD legislator, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, sitting beside a minister in a treasury bench on Tuesday during the Assembly proceedings prompted some humorous remarks, possibly touching the raw nerves of the RJD.

When Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary saw Raghvendra sitting with the minister, he asked the RJD MLA: “Raghvendarji, have you changed sides?”

A cabinet minister in the Lalu-Rabri regime, the witty MLA said: “Yaad aa gaya gujara zamana (just remembered the old days).”

Water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary chipped in, saying the actual thought in Raghvendra’s mind was “aata nahi gujara zamana (years gone by do not return)”. “But the door is always open for you,” he told Raghvendra, throwing the House in a fit of laughter.

The RJD MLA just smiled, prompting the speaker to ask him if it meant he had accepted the minister’s offer.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui took it with a pinch of salt and told the speaker: “You have seen the RJD MLA sit in the treasury. But you seem to miss the sight of NDA MLAs crossing the floor to talk to the Opposition members.”

Vijay retorted that the NDA MLAs always returned to the treasury with two or three Opposition MLAs.

When the Speaker Chaudhary said he did not have any objection to Raghvendra switching sides, Siddiqui told him he should be impartial.

Siddiqui had reasons to be edgy over the pranks after speculation is rife on a split in the RJD following the war of words between the BJP and the JD(U) over the role of Narendra Modi in the next parliamentary elections.