The RJD received a big jolt on Wednesday when its national general secretary M.A.A. Fatmi quit the party after slamming party President Lalu Prasad.
Mr. Fatmi, who announced his resignation from all posts of the party at a press conference in Dharbhanga, alleged that “Lalu Prasad is in the pocket of (senior RJD leader) Prem Chand Gupta and acts blindly on his wrong opinions”.
Stating that he spent almost 11 hours trying to convince Mr. Prasad to ally with LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan at any cost, Mr. Fatmi said, “But, under influence of Prem Chand Gupta, he ignored me and slighted Paswan by offering him a small number of seats driving him out of the alliance.”
Mr. Fatmi alleged that Mr. Prasad had lost the trust of senior RJD leaders and legislators because of which the party had grown weak.
Mr. Fatmi, who was Minister of State for HRD in the UPA-I government, lost the recent Lok Sabha election from Darbhanga to BJP’s Kirti Azad.
He had represented Darbhanga from RJD for four times in the Lok Sabha since 1989 and also lost thrice from there.
Mr. Fatmi also headed the party’s minority cell and was a member of party’s Parliamentary Board.
He said he would decide the future course of action soon after consulting his supporters.
