Lalu says Bihar govt pursuing politics of revenge

MEDININAGAR/JHARKHAND: Launching a tirade against the Nitish Kumar government, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Sunday alleged that it was pursuing politics of revenge.

"The Bihar government's approach appears to be revengeful. Though I had been acquitted in a case, it approached the Patna High Court against me," Prasad said referring to his December 18 acquittal by a court in a dispropertionate assets case.

On March 22, the CBI had challenged the Bihar government's right to go in for an appeal against the acquittal.

Accusing the JD-U, the key constituent in Bihar's NDA, of functioning under the instruction of junior partner BJP, the RJD supremo said he and Kumar had been of the same school of thought, but the latter had been diverted from his "socialist persona".

Addressing a bypoll meeting here, the Railway Minister claimed that he had bailed out a loss-making railways to a profit-making department.

"A third-line for goods trains will come up between Delhi to Howrah and Howrah to Chennai at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore," he said adding plans for another train from Thar station in Rajasthan to Pakistan was on the anvil.

Prasad was here to campaign for RJD's Ghuran Ram for the March 29 Lok Sabha bypoll.

Stating that RJD's views may differ politically, Prasad said his party had been supporting the UPA at the Centre in the interest of the nation.

"The UPA has saved the country.... Sonia Gandhi is a great leader.... We are fortunate to have a prime minister in Manmohan Singh," he said.

Terming Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh as a "dramatist", he said the RJD was supporting the Congress in elections, but would also keep ties with the CPI and the CPI-M in the ensuing elections there.