RSS wants saffron flags, not tricolour: RJD chief Lalu Prasad

TERASIA DIYAR, VAISHALI: Launching his election campaign from a nondescript Terasia Diyara (riverine) village in Bihar’s Raghopur assembly seat, where his son Tejashwi is his party’s nominee, RJD chief Lalu Prasad played the Mandal card and attacked the BJP on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent suggestion for a review of the reservation policy.

Speaking at the meeting, where his castemen, Yadavs, have a very high population, Prasad projected the RSS as a Brahmanical force. The RSS wants saffron flags and not the tricolour, he alleged, while appealing voters to show their strength by using their voting rights and defeat the BJP. Prasad also made it clear that his party was not against anyone.

Prasad reminded voters about his past decision to arrest senior BJP leader LK Advani during the temple movement in 1990. "No CM could stop his rath. I did it. My enmity with them is old," he said. He also reminded them about the age of "Kamandal" Vs "Mandal".

The BJP has tried to project it as a combination of "Mandal and Kamandal" in this election.

Prasad’s wife, Rabri Devi, had lost the assembly election from the same Raghopur seat in the 2010. In the last Lok Sabha elections, ex-Union minister and one of his most trusted men, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, was defeated in the Vaishali seat of which Raghopur assembly seat is a part.