Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad may be in jail for the past over two years serving prison term in the fodder scam yet the ghost of “Lalu phobia” continues to haunt the BJP leaders so much so that the BJP’s much-trumpeted “Jan Jagran” or public awareness campaign over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has virtually turn out to be the “Lalu bashing” programme instead.

This was clearly visible on Monday again when a Press Conference organised by the BJP in Gaya over the issue of CAA was used to mount heavy attacks on Prasad, currently undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Ranchi under judicial custody.

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“Lalu Yadav has been holding regular courts in jail with no fear of the law. I will bring the matter to the notice of the CBI as well as the High Court,” senior BJP leader and Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told the Press Conference. Accusing the RJD president of violating the law, Modi asked the CBI to take cognizance of the case adding that the former should be asked to ‘behave’ like a prisoner.

This is the second time in quick succession that Modi had raised this issue. On January 5 too, Modi had urged the CBI, home ministry and the special court to take cognizance of Lalu’s alleged courts in the judicial custody through his Twitter handle. “The CBI, home ministry and the special court must take cognizance of the way the Hemant Soren government has relaxed jail manual and allowed Lalu to carry out political activities from behind the bars,” Modi had tweeted.

Not only this, Modi has been regularly hitting out at Lalu and his previous 15-year-old regime through his Twitter handle or his statements to the Press almost every day. What is strange is that around 90 percent of hits tweets or his Press statements issued in the past two years have been related to only Lalu or his family, instead of highlighting his government’s achievements or the NDA’s future plans.

“As such, Modi is yet to believe that he is in power. He still behaves quite like an Opposition power,” commented an RJD leader, explaining the situation leading to the formation of NDA government in Bihar. As such, the masses had given mandate to the three-party Grand Alliance comprising the RJD, JD-U and the Congress in 2015 assembly elections in Bihar but chief minister Nitish Kumar walked out of the ruling alliance midway and formed his new government with the support of opposition BJP in July 2017. Strangely, the BJP had won only 53 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly but Nitish set a new precedent by offering power to the party which was mandated to sit in the Opposition.