Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) split on Monday after 13 of its 22 legislators pledged support to the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.
The 13, including five from the minority community, met at the residence of party MLA Samrat Chaudhary and wrote a letter to speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary withdrawing allegiance from the RJD and expressing support to Janata Dal (United) government.
Lalu, according to reports, denied that 13 MLAs had deserted him and reduced the RJD to a mere 9 legislators in the 243-member assembly.
Amid the fluid situation, reports emerged that some among the 13 were having second thoughts about abandoning Lalu, who is trying to rejuvenate the party after coming out of jail on bail in a fodder scam case.
An agency report identified the 13 leaving the RJD as Samrat Chaudhary, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Durga Prasad Singh, Lalit Yadav, Anirudh Kumar, Jeetendra Rai, Akhtar-ul-Islam Sahin, Akhtar-ul-Iman, Abdul Gafood, Faiyazz, Javed Iqbal Ansari, Ram Lakhan Ram Raman and Chandrasekhar.
Samrat Chaudhary, the son of senior RJD leader Shakuni Chaudhary, alleged Lalu had turned his party into the ‘B team’ of Congress in the last three months.
