Lalu's bastion under threat as Tej 'revolts'

Patna : Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav on Friday taunted his younger brother Tejashwi Yadav saying that some people fell ill of exhaustion after addressing a few meetings for the Lok Sabha elections.

Without directly naming Tejashwi Yadav, who is RJD's star campaigner in the absence of his father, Tej Pratap Yadav said: "Laluji used to address 10 to 12 election meetings in a day, but there are some people who fell ill of exhaustion after addressing just four election meetings."

Former state Health Minister targeted Tejashwi Yadav at an election meeting at Makhdumpur in Jehanabad, where he was campaigning for Chandra Prakash, the candidate of his newly floated outfit Lalu-Rabri Morcha.

He was referring to reports claiming that former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister cancelled his election meetings twice of late, citing illness due to the heatwave.

Appealing to the people to vote for his Lalu-Rabri Morcha, Tej Pratap Yadav said: "RJD candidate from Jehanabad Surendra Yadav is not suitable as he unsuccessfully contested from the seat twice. He is a weak candidate. I appeal to the people to support my candidate."

He emphasised that the Lalu-Rabri Morcha was a part of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Tej Pratap Yadav launched the Morcha last month after allegedly being sidelined from the RJD.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad has been undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Ranchi, after being convicted in fodder scam cases.

As per the Grand Alliance seat sharing formula, the RJD is contesting on 19 and the Congress nine, while smaller parties are running for the remaining of the 40 constituencies in Bihar.

Bihar has three more phases of polling to go May 6, May 12 and May 19.