UPA loses two veterns to NDA

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) - Congress alliance in Bihar suffered two huge losses on Wednesday in the run up to the poll. Upset over not getting Lok Sabha tickets Ram Kripal Yadav, a close confidante of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), while former Bihar Congress chief Mehbood Ali Kaisar joined Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Both Yadav and Kaisar, had been denied tickets to contest the upcoming elections by the RJD-Congress combine. Yadav is keen on contesting elections from Patliputra seat, which Lalu Prasad gave to his first born Misa Bharti. Whereas, Kaisar wanted to try his luck from Khagaria constituency, which was given to RJD as part of Congress's deal with Prasad. Since then, both leaders have been very much open about their discontents.

Yadav was given a grand welcome by the saffron party on Wednesday in New Delhi. Sitting on the side of senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and party president Rajnath Singh, he accused Lalu for giving precedence to family over party and cadre.

"I am saddened by what is happening to ordinary workers like us. Family is getting precedence over the party. We felt social justice was what we must fight for, not for one family," said Ram Kripal. He claimed that under Lalu, secularism has been reduced to a poll slogan for the RJD.

Meanwhile, he was all praises for the BJP's Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi on Wednesday, whom he attacked vigorously in the recent past. "People are rooting for Narendra Modi. His record of good governance and development is unprecedented. I will support Modiji as I am also son of a poor man," he said.

Lalu Prasad, visibly rattled up with the departure of one of his closest aides, called his former lieutenant an opportunist and said that Yadav will end up as "Bhasmasura". "Overnight Narendra Modi has become his brother. The way he went against his principles, the people of Bihar is watching. He would end as Bhasmasura."

On other hand, former state Congress president, Mehboob Ali Kaisar has also jumped ship and joined the LJP in order to try his luck from the Khagaria seat. Kaiser has earlier contested election in 2009 from this constituency and got more than 1.25 lakh votes. He was also pitching for this time as well. However, this time the Congress leadership ceded the seat to the RJD and Kaiser openly opposed that. He had also communicated his unhappiness to the Party President Sonia Gandhi and said that most of the seats Congress got were not winnable and the party's interests would suffer.

"My relationship with Congress was 22 years old, therefore I am pained in leaving the party. However, I have not left the party because I was denied ticket. I left because I was aggrieved with a lot of things," Kaiser said. Earlier, he was also in touch with the Janata Dal (United), but the talks failed after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar offered the seat to dissident RJD leader Shakuni Choudhary. Choudhary has also joined the JD (U) on Wednesday. Choudhary is father of dissident RJD MLA Samrat Choudhary, who along with a dozen other MLAs revolted against Lalu Prasad. However, later 9 of them returned to the RJD.