Patna, Feb 25: A day after 13 of his MLAs announced that they were quitting his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad paraded nine of them at a press conference on Tuesday, proving their allegiance to him.
"All these MLAs are with the party. I am going to the Assembly to meet the Speaker and after that I will go to Raj Bhawan. Later I will address a press conference at 6 pm," Lalu said.
His wife Rabri Devi, who has handled the mantle of the party in his absence, said, "We are in touch with our MLAs. They have told us that they are victims of misunderstanding that was created by Nitish. We shall see in the coming election how well Nitish will fare."
A day after revolt, Lalu Prasad parades 9 MLAs, claims all is well in RJD
Thirteen of Lalu’s 22 MLAs - Samrat Chaudhary, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Durga Prasad Singh, Lalit Yadav, Anirudh Kumar, Jeetendra Rai, Akhtar-ul-Islam Sahin, Akhtar-ul-Iman, Abdul Gafoor, Faiyazz, Javed Iqbal Ansari, Ram Lakhan Ram Raman and Chandrasekhar - on Monday said they were resigning from the RJD.
However, six of them later claimed that their signatures had been forged on the letter which asked the Speaker to allot them a separate seating arrangement inside the Assembly or allow their merger with the JD(U).
An angry Lalu lashed out at Nitish saying that the Bihar Chief Minister in collusion with the Assembly Speaker was trying to break the RJD. "Nitish Kumar ek number ka ghatiya insaan hai. Dorey daal raha hai (wooing MLAs). Ye vibhaag de raha hai, who vibhag de raha hai (allotting departments to MLAs). Aur ye jo Speaker hai..keh rahe ki tumhara doosra group bana diya. Arey kaise bana diya? Hum batayenge.. aaj toh sara din mera kaaj karam rahega (I will tell all soon)," he said.
Nitish denied the charges. He said that he was "more than happy" to accept people who were leaving the RJD camp, but insisted that he was not in collusion with the Speaker.
"I cannot stop people from making allegations. Only the Bihar Assembly Speaker can give you information on who has sent letters and who has not. But politically, yes, a few cracks are appearing in the RJD, and if people are leaving the party to join us, we are more than happy to accept them. But it is not possible for me to collude with the Speaker," he said.