Opposition flexes muscles in Bihar

A month after being outsmarted from power by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav gave public dimension to his anger and called for complete unity of the Opposition parties to uproot the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the country in the 2019 general election.

Lalu was addressing a massive gathering at the high-profile "BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao" mega rally, which witnessed a confluence of senior leaders of as many as 17 Opposition parties from across India. Lalu also targetted his ally-turned-foe Nitish switching loyalties claiming that "no one will trust him (Nitish) any more."

From the same platform, "rebel" Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MP Sharad Yadav pledged to form a "pan-India Mahagathbandhan that will change the face of the nation in the next five years".

"I want to tell those people who broke the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, that now there will be a Grand Alliance of 125 crore people at the national level," said Sharad, in an oblique attack on his own party's President Nitish Kumar who switched over to the BJP and formed a new government in Bihar on July 27.

Sharad participated in RJD's anti-BJP rally despite the JD-U making it clear that it was a "lakshmanrekha" for him. "He has no relation with the JD-U anymore. He has left the party by his own wish," JD-U general secretary KC Tyagi said. Sources in the JD-U also hinted that the party will move for disqualification of Sharad's Rajya Sabha membership soon.

The ensemble of political heavyweights at the rally included West Bengal CM Mamata Bannerjee, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and CP Joshi, former Jharkhand CMs Babu Lal Marandi and Hemant Soren, NCP's Tariq Anwar, RLD's Jayant Choudhary and representatives from JD-S, J&K National Conference and Left parties.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi could not make it to the rally due to "health issues", an audio recording of her message was played on the occasion in which she said, "The rally is a platform for all separate fingers (Opposition parties) to come together and make a strong fist that will fight for prtecting the country's unity and diversity." Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's message was also read out at the rally.

The West Bengal CM termed the rally as a beginning of BJP's ouster from the nation. "In India, it is now the government of the agencies, by the agencies and for the agencies. The Centre is trying to scare Lalu ji through CBI… even other parties are being targeted… but we will not give up. I trust Lalu ji 100 per cent," said Mamata, whose short speech was replete with "shayaris".

Almost all Opposition leaders raised the issue of Gorakhpur children deaths and Panchkula violence, besides targeting the Centre over the "promised two crore jobs annually, farmers suicide and acche din in three years".

Both of Lalu's son Tejashwi and Tej Pratap were in their element and attacked "chacha Nitish" and the BJP, with the former claiming, "Nitish ko baisakhi pe kursi chahiye" and the latter emulating his father's rustic style and blowing conch-shell to give a "battle cry".

Throughout the day, most Patna roads were claimed by lakhs of RJD supporters, some of whom even flaunted firecracker sten guns and fired a few rounds in air. The major thoroughfares saw a deluge of posters. The district administration had deployed over 6,000 cops and 1,000 magistrates to maintain law and order in Bihar's capital.

Lalu "morphs" rally crowd pic

RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav was under fire from the BJP for allegedly sharing a "morphed" picture of the rally venue from his official Twitter handle. Lalu posted a photograph of Patna's Gandhi Maidan fully packed with RJD supporters and wrote -- No "Face" will stand in front of Lalu's "Base". Come & Count as much as u can in Gandhi Maidan, Patna #DeshBachao." However, media photographs of the venue from the same camera angle showed that at least one-third of the groud remained empty throughout the rally. State BJP President Nityanand Rai and deputy CM of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi cornered Lalu saying he cannot stop doing "ghotala" either in real life or on social media. The Twitterati, too, had a field day trolling Lalu over the "gaffe".