With RJD president Lalu Prasad back in jail in another fodder scam case, keeping the party flock together has become a challenge for the RJD. So, the party has planned a state-wide ‘naya yatra’ to seek justice for the party chief. The yatra will be undertaken shortly after Makar Sankranti.
During the yatra, the party leaders will try to project before the masses how the RJD president and his family have been constantly denied justice and have been implicated in false cases by their political adversaries, national president of RJD Struggle Committee, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, said.
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The party hopes to make big political gains through this move. According to party strategists, the idea will lead to strong polarisation of Yadavs, the fellow castemen of the RJD president, which in turn will further cement the Muslim-Yadav equation and bring together a major section of backward voters in support for Lalu Prasad.
“It is Lalu Prasad who gave voice to the poor and the deprived but now he is being silenced by his political adversaries. So it’s time for the backwards, Dalits and minorities to unitedly support Prasad,” said a RJD strategist.
Reports said during the course of ‘naya yatra’, the RJD would try to woo the Kushawa voters, who, according to the party, could become the balancing factor. Keeping in view the political significance of the community, the RJD has decided to spare some 20 seats for them in the state Assembly and five in the Lok Sabha.
The party believes that the Muslim-Yadav equation has got cemented to some extent post Prasad’s imprisonment and if the Kushawa community lends its support, RJD’s bounce-back to power on its own will be an easy task in the next Assembly elections.
The party also plans to distribute the “emotional message” (photo) penned by jailed Mr Prasad to each and every house to get sympathy of the general masses. Through his two-page printed message, the RJD president has vowed to happily stay in jail for hundred years, if needed, for social justice. “Please don’t get disappointed. It’s your love and affection that has given me a lot of strength. No one has the guts to intimidate the man who enjoys the support of millions,” said Mr Prasad in his letter.
He said he was apprehensive of such a situation from the day he decided to fight for the cause of the poor. “I knew I will be put behind bars, be victimised and implicated in false cases,” he said.
