Yadav scoffs at his chin and recalls with pride that the RJD supremo blamed me for the defeat of his wife Rabri Devi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Highlight
- Yadav is planning to file his nomination papers on June 15
- He had also filed his nomination papers in 2017
- Yadav’s nomination was rejected last time due to not having sufficient number of proposers.
The presidential election to decide the successor of President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to be held on July 18. The Election Commission has started the nomination process and fixed June 29 as the last date for nominations. Lalu Prasad Yadav plans to throw his hat into the ring, believing that there must be a Bihari in the competition.
However, the twist here is that Yadav is not a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, but a resident of Saran district. Yadav claims that he has already booked a flight ticket to Delhi, where he proposes to file his nomination papers on June 15.
He had also filed his nomination papers in 2017, when the election was between Ram Nath Kovind, the then governor of Bihar, and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, a native of the soil.
“My papers were rejected last time because these were not supported by sufficient number of proposers. This time, I am better prepared”, Yadav told PTI over phone. A resident of Yadav Rahimpur village in Marhaura assembly constituency of Saran, Yadav, barely 42 years old, is the son of the RJD president, though, like the latter, he also looks after a large family.
“I practice agriculture for a living and engage in social work. I have seven children. My eldest daughter is married,” Yadav said. It is not surprising that familiar people refer to them as “Dharti Pakad” (cling to the earth), an adjective that has come to be associated in India’s political lexicon with those who like to contest elections for adventure and publicity. We do. ,
Yadav scoffs at his chin and recalls with pride that the RJD supremo “blamed me for the defeat of his wife Rabri Devi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections”. Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi herself had contested from Saran, which was earlier represented by her husband, who was disqualified in 2013 after being convicted in the fodder scam.
She lost to BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who rode the Narendra Modi wave and won by a margin of around 50,000 votes. Lalu Prasad Yadav got less than 10,000 votes and his deposit was forfeited.
Fearless Yadav again jumped into the fray in 2019 and got nearly six thousand votes. “I keep trying my luck from Panchayat to President’s post. If nothing else, I can make a record of contesting the most elections,” he said.
(with PTI inputs)
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