Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Tuesday asked the newly-elected party MLAs not to scramble for bungalows in Patna before it was officially allotted to them. He also advised party leaders and MLAs to be “restrained and nice” to people as they now possessed “immense power.”
After getting a massive mandate in the Assembly poll, the RJD held its first executive committee meeting at the party headquarters on Tuesday. It set a target of enrolling 50 lakh members in the coming days. All the top party leaders, newly elected legislators and executive committee members were present.
“You don’t have to be in a rush to get official bungalows and put your nameplate outside the gate. I know it’s not you but some VIPs around you who do such things… be wary and don’t be misled by them,” Mr. Prasad told the MLAs.
Earlier, some newly-elected MLAs from the RJD and the JD(U) had affixed their nameplates to the gate of several palatial bungalows. They had also pulled out the nameplates of the present residents. Nameplates of RJD MLAs Arun Kumar Yadav and Anil Kumar Yadav and R.N. Singh of the JD(U) were seen outside the bungalows of former Baikunthpur JD(U) MLA Manjeet Singh, Indradeo Manjhi of BJP and Rahul Sharma of the JD(U) on Sunday and Monday. However, on Tuesday they were missing.
Significantly Tejaswi Yadav, RJD leader and son of party chief Lalu Prasad, is the Deputy Chief Minister and also in-charge of the Building Construction Department which decides the allotment of buildings and bungalows.
Tejaswi Yadav too had sternly told the MLAs that they would be allotted bungalows according to the official norms. “Don’t be involved in activities which bring bad name to the party,” he told party leaders and workers on Tuesday.
“After such a huge mandate, we’ve to work very hard… you should not be distracted and involve yourself in other activities. Otherwise we will all be in big trouble… the forces we defeated in the poll are very strong and they will try their best to trap us,” he cautioned. His father and party chief Lalu Prasad nodded in agreement.
