PATNA: A student outfit floated by RJD boss Lalu Prasad’s elder son and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav, on Monday demanded 25% share for its founder in the state legislative council’s 24 seats, likely to go to the polls in the next few weeks.
The Chhatra Janshakti Parishad (CJP), which was floated by Tej Pratap in September last year after his differences with the RJD state president Jagdanand, has asked the RJD leadership to authorize Tej Pratap for selecting the party candidates for 25% of the 24 council seats, going to the polls in near future.
“If the RJD gives six seats to the CJP, it would extend its full support to all candidates of the RJD,” the Parishad’s state president Prashant Pratap Yadav said in a written statement here.
The CJP state chief also warned that the RJD could not win the forthcoming council polls without the patronage of ‘Shri Krishna.’ Here, he used the term ‘Shri Krishna’ not for Lord Krishna but for Lalu’s son Tej Pratap, who frequently dresses like Lord Krishna. Tej Pratap himself refers as Shri Krishna and his younger brother Tejashwi as Arjuna.
“It should be kept in mind that victory is impossible without the patronage of Shri Krishna. The results of the recent assembly by-elections in the state are its living example,” the CJP state president said. He was referring to the recent defeat of the RJD candidates in Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan assembly by-polls.
The CJP demand has caused a flutter in the RJD circles. Political analysts feel the CJP has raised such a demand at the advice of Tej Pratap, who did not miss any chance to cause an embarrassment for the RJD leadership.
The 24 seats in the council fell vacant on July 16, 2021 after the previous elected MLCs completed their six years’ term. The election for the 24 seats could not be held on time because of the non-completion of the Electoral College due to the delay in the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) elections.
Members of an Electoral College compromising the elected representatives of the PRIs, urban local bodies (ULBs) and the cantonment boards cast votes in the election to the MLCs from the local authorities’ constituencies.
The state election office recently sent a recommendation to the Election Commission for holding the polls in all 24 local authorities’ constituencies of the council.
In the NDA, the JD(U) parliamentary board president and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha has demanded seat-sharing on a 50:50 basis between the JD(U) and the BJP for the council polls. Kushwaha said the BJP and the JD(U) each should get 12 seats.
In the meantime, the RJD on Monday named Saurabh Kumar as its candidate for the West Champaran local authority constituency of the council. The RJD’s West Champaran district president Iftekhar Ahmad Khan alias Munna Tyagi said Saurabh, an engineer by profession, has been made the party candidate at the directives of the RJD national leadership.
