Patna, Sep 11 (PTI) RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav on Friday demanded a “life-size statue” of former Union minister late Ram Vilas Paswan, whose son Chirag had sought the honour for his father Lalu Prasad a day ago.
Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, raised the demand in a letter to Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, whom he also urged to hold “state functions” on the late leader’s birth and death anniversaries.
When journalists approached Yadav with queries about his letter and Chirag Paswan’s statement on Thursday, despite them being in rival camps, the RJD leader said that “of course, we shall honour all those people who have worked for social emancipation”.
Notably, the late Paswan and Prasad had both made their parliamentary debut in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls, after having taken part in the “Bihar movement” spearheaded by Jayaprakash Narayan.
Paswan floated Lok Janshakti Party in 2000 and was famously called a weathervane (‘mausam vaigyanik’) by Prasad because of his uncanny knack for siding with whichever political formation was on the ascent.
Tejashwi Yadav, in his letter, also sought similar honours for former Union ministers Sharad Yadav and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, stating that the two deceased leaders and late Paswan were “sons of the nation to whom Bihar shall always remain indebted”.
Sharad Yadav had once been a bitter rival of Lalu Prasad, founding chief of the RJD, both of whom had taken on each other in parliamentary polls from the Madhepura constituency.
However, towards the end of his career, Yadav mended fences with Prasad and merged with the RJD his Loktantrik Janata Dal, floated after his expulsion from JD(U).
Singh, on the other hand, remained a staunch loyalist of the RJD president till a few weeks before his death in 2020, when he announced his resignation from the party from his hospital bed.
Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan, who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), drew flak from the BJP for his appreciation for the RJD supremo, the most steadfast opponent of the saffron party in the state.
BJP MLA Neeraj Kumar Singh “Bablu” voiced disgust when his attention was drawn to the statement of Paswan.
“He (Prasad) is a convicted person. How can we install his statue,” asked Bablu, referring to the RJD supremo’s conviction in fodder scam cases.
A staunch BJP ally who is also a minister in the Narendra Modi government, Paswan had made the remark when his response was sought on demands for renaming Bakhtiarpur, a town on the outskirts of Patna, after former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was born there.
The Hajipur MP had said that besides Kumar, Prasad and his father had “made immense contributions to public life in Bihar” and deserved to be honoured with life-size statues. PTI PKD NAC SOM
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