Patna, April 5: The Congress today weaned away Pappu Yadav and wife Ranjita Ranjan from the RJD-LJP combine and got an impressive character certificate for the Prime Minister in the bargain.
“Manmohan Singh is duniya mein sabse imaandar neta hai (Manmohan Singh is the most honest leader in the world),” said Yadav, a murder accused who was with Lalu Prasad’s RJD till yesterday.
If the Prime Minister were to contest from the Kosi belt, Yadav promised he would ensure Singh’s victory in his stronghold.
“Woh yahaan se chunav ladein, hum unhe jitayenge (He should fight from this region, we will make him win),” the “don of Purnea” said.
His 34-year-old wife Ranjita, a state-level badminton player who surrendered her Lok Janshakti Party ticket to contest Supaul, seemed equally impressed with Rahul Gandhi’s flood relief work last August.
“I have decided to contest on a Congress ticket after consulting the people of my constituency who remember how the Prime Minister came to help them when they were in distress and how Rahulji reached out to the masses with flood relief,” she said.
Last August, when the Kosi breached its banks, Madhepura, Saharsa and Supaul bore the brunt of the floods.
The Prime Minister, who toured the area, declared the Bihar floods a national calamity and announced a Rs 1,000-crore relief package.
Rahul is said to have toured the region in a boat, a fact, Ranjita said, the people had not forgotten.
Ranjita had won the Saharsa Lok Sabha seat on an LJP ticket and Yadav had won Madhepura on an RJD ticket in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
After delimitation, Saharsa ceased to be a separate constituency, so Ranjita was offered Supaul, a neighbouring area in Purnea division.
She won applause from the Congress benches in the Lok Sabha last year when she defended the nuclear deal in a speech supporting Manmohan Singh.
Yadav, out on bail, will not be able to contest.
On April 2, Patna High Court rejected his petition seeking suspension of his conviction in the murder of CPI(ML) leader Ajit Sarkar.
Yadav has won from the Purnea region four times.
Ranjita and Yadav said their supporters harboured anger against the NDA government in Bihar that “failed” to maintain the Kosi embankment that led to the breach and the flood disaster.
Ranjita said the youth had seen hope in the Congress.
“We are a young generation. We must be forward-looking. We must keep the people and the nation above our posts and parties. I am confident that the Congress, with the young Rahulji, economist Manmohan Singh and caring Sonia Gandhi, is the party for the forward-looking young generation”.
Her decision to move to the Congress may deal a blow to the RJD-LJP combine that had fielded her from Supaul as the joint candidate.
It is not known what Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP chief, will do with the seat.
Lalu Prasad’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, too, has moved to the Congress and will fight LJP nominee and film director Prakash Jha, in West Champaran.
I have always maintained there is no difference between the various political parties as far as corruption is concerned.
Here we see a convicted murderer singing praise of the Congress party and Manmohan Singh after joining them.
I am sure, this is one praise Manmohan could do without. He must have blushed, being praised by a convicted murderer.
Tow of Lalu Yadav's erstwhile bedfellows have joined Congress. Pappu Yadav and Sadhu Yadav.
I am just wondering whether they are not Lalu's Trojan horses planted by Lalu in the congress to destroy the party further.
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