Patna, Jan 29 (Inditop.com) Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasasd and his wife Rabri Devi are elated with the overwhelming success of the dawn-to-dusk statewide shutdown called by the party to protest rising prices of essential items. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on the other hand, said Thursday’s shutdown was opposed to development.
“Yes, we are happy that, after all, people’s anger was reflected and evident with the total success of the shutdown in Bihar,” Lalu Prasad told Inditop here Friday.
He added that the shutdown was supported by the people.
The RJD chief said his party, along with its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Left parties, will expose the “double standards” of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar.
“People, particularly poorest of the poor Mahadalits, are dying of hunger and government schemes are not reaching them due to rampant corruption but Nitish Kumar is busy singing ‘shining Bihar’ like ‘shining India’. It has angered the people,” he said.
However, Nitish Kumar termed the shutdown opposed to development. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said it was another example of terror and a warning to the people of the “return of jungle raj”.
The dawn-to-dusk shutdown evoked total response in Bihar, upsetting Lalu-Rabri rival Nitish Kumar as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, which is trying for a revival in the state.
In contrast, RJD leaders and workers are upbeat and see a new ray of hope ahead of the state assembly polls due in November.
Till a few days ago, the RJD was described as a spent force and its leader – Lalu Prasad – had been written off. But the shutdown success has provided the much-needed shot in the arm to him to take on the state’s ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and its ally, the BJP.
Political analyst Satyanarain Madan said Lalu-Rabri for the first time made a political mark by a near total shutdown after their ouster from power in 2005 in Bihar and after Lalu Prasad lost his place in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance central government last year after his party was routed in the Lok Sabha polls.
According to police reports from different districts, nearly 12,000 workers and leaders of the RJD were arrested during the shutdown but later released. Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan were arrested, along with dozens of other leaders in Patna.
The shutdown was supported by RJD’s ally LJP and the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist.
In September last year, the RJD-LJP alliance surprised all when they performed better than expected in the by-elections to 18 assembly seats in Bihar. The opposition alliance bagged nine seats, while the ruling coalition of the JD-U and BJP won just five.
The vote was then seen as a mini referendum for the Nitish Kumar government and termed as a semi-final. Its outcome in favour of RJD-LJP alliance upset Nitish Kumar as he had expected a clean sweep in the elections.
