Chief minister Nitish Kumar offers food to a JD(U) member in Patna on Makar Sankranti. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 14: “Dharm, karm aur rajniti, Laluji in teen kamon ko aajkal bahut imandari ke saath kar rahe hain (Religion, work and politics, Lalu Prasad has taken to these with utmost sincerity).”

These words, the source of which is a member of the RJD, reflect what party chief Lalu Prasad has been up to in a bid to “reclaim lost territory”.

On Wednesday, the former Bihar chief minister visited Phulwaria village in Gopalganj to install a statue of Goddess Durga in a temple and also offered prayer for hours.

Earlier, in the first week of this month, Lalu Prasad performed rudrabhishek, a special puja, at a Shiva temple in Varanasi. The priests said the puja would help him “gain power and become stronger”.

The RJD chief does not hide his intent. “I am praying to the gods to get back the lost gaddi (seat) of Bihar,” he said. To achieve their goal, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi spent the first day of the year praying in a Kerala temple.

Lalu Prasad, however, is not banking on divine intervention alone. “He is doing all the hard work at the development and political level as well,” claimed state RJD chief Abdul Bari Siddiqui, citing examples of railway projects his party boss has brought to Bihar.

On Thursday, the railways bought the closed Rohtas industries (where cement, rods and vegetable products used to be made) for Rs 140 crore to expand its infrastructure. “The railway authorities wish to develop a freight corridor on the Delhi-Kolkata route through Dehri-on-Sone where the Rohtas industries are located,” said Lalu Prasad, describing the area as a “strategic location near the Golden Quadrilateral”.

Recently, the railway minister got the Union cabinet’s nod to set up a locomotive factory at Marhaura in Chhapra, which he represents in the Lok Sabha.

Change is visible at the renovated and modernised Chhapra railway station, too, with the place donning a bright and clean new look.

“Unlike chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is making promises on paper but doing little, we are actually working for the people and that is visible. Everyone knows that the Marhaura coach factory has the potential to provide employment to thousands of youths of the region,” Lalu Prasad said.

Expressing concern over the violence in Assam in which Hindi-speaking people were targeted, Lalu Prasad asked his party colleague and Union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh to announce employment programmes in 19 districts of the state to check the migration of workers.

At the political level, Lalu Prasad is spending more time in Bihar than before. He despatched most former ministers of the Rabri Devi cabinet and party MLAs to their respective constituencies “to spend time with the people” in the run-up to a rally that he will organise in Patna.

Nitish, though, is not impressed. “Lalu Prasad should spend more time in Delhi and work for his ministry. We are unable to understand why is he staying in Bihar and ignoring his office.”