Dalsingh Sarai: Facing a familiar foe, Rashtriya Janata Dal Ujiarpur candidate Alok Kumar Mehta sounded confident of avenging his narrow loss in the 2009 elections to Janata Dal United sitting MP Ashwamedh Devi this time. Alok Kumar Mehta addressed an impressive rally with RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti, who is a candidate from Pataliputra, at RB College grounds in Dalsingh Sarai where he appealed to the people to reject both the JDU and Bharatiya Janata Party as according to him neither party has the blueprint to either develop the country or do any positive work in Bihar.
Even though it was extremely hot, a large number of people had gathered to listen to Mehta and Bharti who warned the electorate that if they don't vote for the RJD, the country may face a tough time as the BJP was a communal party. Bharti also blamed RJD's rivals for "conspiring" against her father and ensuring his conviction in the fodder scam.
Mehta later told IBNLive that there is no fight in Ujiarpur as the incumbent MP Ashwamedh Devi is very unpopular and her party leader (Nitish Kumar) had ruined the state in the past eight years. "Where is the development that Nitishji so proudly claims he has done? Schools have no teachers, there is no employment and so youngsters have to migrate to other states. He (Nitish Kumar) says there is rule of law in the state now and under Laluji it was jungle raj. Our leader Ravinder Yadav was killed in Supaul just a few days back and still Nitishji says everything is fine in the state. This is not sushashan (good governance) but this kushasan (bad governance)," he said.
Mehta had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha elections to Ashwamedh Devi by 25,312 votes but claimed that in the past five years the voters had realised that they had chosen the wrong leader. He also dismissed BJP candidate Nityanand Rai as a non-serious player. "He is contesting just to make up the number. Bihar has seen the real face of the BJP. Their leader comes on a helicopter from Gujarat and keeps on shouting banal slogans. On May 16 he will have to take the helicopter back to Gujarat and find a place to hide," he added without taking Narendra Modi's name.
A large number of the crowd which attended the rally appeared to be committed RJD voters. "Why should we not vote for 'lalten' (RJD's symbol lantern)? Lalu is our leader. Nitish Kumar and BJP are anti-people. Both are busy fooling us and even the JDU-BJP breakup is an eyewash. Both will join hands again at the first opportunity," said Ram Baran, who had travelled almost 35 km from Morwa to attend the rally. His friend Krishna Prasad, too, echoed the same.
A group of local RJD leaders and workers claimed that the party was on an upswing across the state. When asked about the general perception that Lalu was only appealing to the Yadavs and Muslims, one of them quickly pointed out that out of the four RJD MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha, three were Rajputs (Prabhunath Singh, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Jagadanand Singh) with the fourth being Lalu himself even though he was later disqualified following his conviction and jail term in the fodder scam. They added that it was not just the Yadavs and Muslims who were voting for the RJD but even the upper castes and Dalits had realised that both the BJP and JDU were using them for their narrow political gains.
"BJP leaders are promising the sky. But their real motive is to capture power and help the big industrialists. They are not interested in helping the poor," said a RJD worker. He added that Ujiarpur had already given its verdict in favour of RJD and only the formalities need to be completed on May 16 when results would be announced.
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