Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today claimed that RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's initial reluctance to appear before the CBI for interrogation in the hotels-for-land scam showed that something was fishy.
Prasad, a former railways minister, appeared before the CBI in Delhi yesterday and was interrogated for seven hours in connection with the alleged corruption in the award of contract for the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels in 2006.
His son Tejaswi Yadav, who is leader of opposition in Bihar, was questioned by the central agency in the case today.
"He appeared before the investigating agency after as many as four summons. This shows there is something very fishy (daal mein kaala nahin, poori daal hi kaali hai)," Paswan alleged.
The Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, was speaking at the concluding session of his party's two-day convention here.
Referring to the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was recently convicted for raping two disciples, he said, "Even Ram Rahim failed to escape from the law despite his tremendous following. The law is taking its own course in Prasad's case as well."
The LJP chief, who had broken away from an alliance with the RJD and joined the BJP-led NDA shortly before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, claimed that Prasad's misdeeds landed his entire family in trouble.
"His (Prasad's) wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, daughter Misa--all are finding themselves embroiled in corruption cases and the RJD supremo is resorting to his outdated antics through which he had enticed voters in the past," Paswan claimed.
Referring to the upcoming assembly polls in various states, he said the LJP would fight it as part of the NDA and would try to field candidates in those constituencies where the party workers were confident of being victorious.
"In the assembly polls, our primary aim will be to ensure the victory of the maximum number of NDA candidates," he said giving the example of Uttar Pradesh where the LJP did not field any candidate but worked "full time to ensure the NDA's victory".
Paswan claimed the law and order situation has improved in Bihar since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar quit the Grand Alliance and rejoined the NDA.
"The state's bureaucracy, whose competence is beyond a shadow of doubt, is now able to work without any extraneous pressure," he added.
The LJP chief claimed that the party had a national presence with 30 lakh workers. "We want to raise this number to one crore. Further discussions on the strategy that might be adopted to achieve this end will take place at the party's national executive meeting at Pune in December," he said.
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