At RJD national meet, Tej Pratap accuses own party man, says he was abused

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[google-translator]

PATNA: Internal rift seemed visible within the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) during the national executive meeting in New Delhi on Sunday with Bihar unit president Jagdanand Singh giving the event a miss while Lalu Prasad’s elder son and minister Tej Pratap Yadav accused national general secretary Shyam Rajak of abusing him and for terming him an ‘RSS agent’.

At the meeting, attended by top RJD functionaries, a resolution was passed to strengthen opposition unity to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“I had just enquired about the timing of the national executive meeting and council meeting from Rajak. But, he hurled abuses at me. This is intolerable. I will loge a first information report (FIR) against him and I want him to be ousted from the party,” Tej Pratap told a private news channel.

The environment minister said that the party had entrusted a lot of faith in him but the national general secretary continues to weaken the party. “My father (Lalu), and my brother( Tejashwi) have reposed a lot of faith in him (Rajak). But he has always weakened the organisaton and continues to do so,” he said.

Claiming that Rajak was probably unhappy about not becoming a minister in the newly formed JD(U)-RJD-led Grand Alliance government, Tej Pratap said, “I can quit my post and he(Rajak) can become a minister. But he can’t abuse me. My father has never taught us to abuse others.”

Rajak, however, chose to ignore the allegations leveled against him by Tej Pratap and said that he is just like a ‘bonded labour’ in the party. “RJD belongs to Tej Pratap and he can either keep me or throw me out. They are strong people and they can say anything, anywhere,” the national general secretary said.

Meanwhile, the absence of Bihar unit president Jagdanand Singh from the meeting, which was held at NDMC Convention Centre, and was attended by top RJD functionaries, including party chief Lalu Prasad, deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and veteran leader Sharad Yadav, added fuel to the speculations that an internal rift is brewing within the party, even as former agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh, who had recently resigned from his post, attended the event.

Singh, who was considered one of the closest aides of Lalu till recently, is said to be upset with the party’s top leadership after his son resigned as a minister on October 2, ostensibly on the diktats of the party chief.

Singh was supposed to leave for New Delhi two days back but his absence drew speculations again that the veteran RJD leader may resign from the post of state president in the coming days.

Sudhakar, when asked about his father’s absence said that he can’t say why he didn’t come. The former minister, however, clarified that he has no complaints against the party.

RJD’s national vice president Shivanand Tiwary, however, said that he was hopeful that Singh would attend the national council meeting on Monday.

Party’s state spokesperson Shakti Singh said the state president was sick and that was the reason he had not attended the executive meeting.


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