Undeterred by ballot setbacks, Lalu Prasad Yadav to contest Presidential polls

By PTI

PATNA: In the upcoming Presidential election, Lalu Prasad Yadav plans to throw his hat within the ring, agency in his perception that there have to be a Bihari within the contest.

However, he isn’t the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief.

A resident of Saran district, which by the way has been the “Karmabhoomi” (land of labor) of his well-known namesake, Yadav claims to have already booked a flight ticket to Delhi the place he proposes to file his nomination papers on June 15.

He had filed his nomination papers in 2017 as nicely when the competition was between the then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind, who went on to win, and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who was additionally a local of the soil.

“My papers got rejected last time since these were not endorsed by an adequate number of proposers. This time, I am better prepared”, Yadav informed PTI over telephone.

A resident of Yadav Rahimpur village in Marhaura meeting section of Saran, Yadav is barely 42, younger sufficient to be a son of the RJD president, although, just like the latter, he too takes care of a big household. “I practise agriculture for a living and engage in social work. I have seven children. My eldest daughter is married,” mentioned Yadav. It isn’t a surprise that acquaintances name him ‘dharti pakad’ (one who clings on to the earth), an epithet that has come to be related, in India’s political lexicon, with those that wish to contest elections for the sake of thrill and publicity.

Yadav takes the derision on his chin and recollects with delight that the RJD supremo had “blamed me for the defeat of his wife Rabri Devi in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.”

Rabri Devi, a former chief minister herself, had contested from Saran which was beforehand represented by her husband who acquired disqualified in 2013 following his conviction within the fodder rip-off.

She misplaced to the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who rode the Narendra Modi wave, by a margin of round 50,000 votes.

Lalu Prasad Yadav polled lower than 10,000 votes and forfeited his deposit.

Undeterred, Yadav once more jumped into the fray in 2019 and polled about six thousand votes.

“I keep trying my luck, from Panchayats to Presidentship. If nothing else, I may come to hold the record for contesting the maximum number of elections,” he mentioned with a deadpan expression.