RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharati on Friday tried to meet and pacify party general secretary Ram Kripal Yadav in a bid to prevent him from leaving the party. He is upset at her being given ticket to contest from Pataliputra, from where he wanted to enter the fray.
Ms. Bharati rushed to his residence here and stayed put for well over five hours. In fact the entire Prasad family has been trying to mollify Mr. Yadav.
(According to a late night PTI report, Mr. Yadav conceded Ms. Bharti’s request that he replace her as the candidate in Patliputra but this should be announced by the RJD chief. Mr. Yadav said he was “sorry” he could not meet Ms. Bharti, who had long waited for her ‘uncle.’ “But, I had a talk with her later over phone and I agreed to her request that I shall contest from Patliputra,” he told PTI)
While Mr. Prasad said Mr. Yadav made no demand for the seat, his wife Rabri Devi chipped in, saying it was a family matter. Their son Tejaswi too was not far behind in showering respect on Mr. Yadav.
Ms. Bharati, however, could not meet the man considered most loyal to her father, who stood by him in the worst of times. She told The Hindu that she would meet him when possible and ask him that either he bless her or contest the seat himself.
“I have known him since childhood. He is like my father. It is never the case the daughter will fail to win over her father,” she said.
Mr. Yadav is said to have slipped out of his home as soon as Ms. Bharati arrived and remained incommunicado, both his mobile phones having remained switched off. All efforts by Ms. Bharati and her husband Shailesh to contact him yielded no result.
She stays in Delhi and would return to Patna only with Mr. Yadav, asserts Ms. Bharati. Pataliputra goes to the polls on April 17 and nominations are to be filed between March 19 and 26.
Like Mr. Prasad, his daughter also maintained that she had no indication of Mr. Yadav eyeing the seat.
