New Delhi: The game of one-upmanship between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal-United JD(U) on resigning to protest the hate campaign being run by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray is showing no signs of ending.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad had set a November-15 deadline for securing resignations of his public representatives. Having done that, he is now baiting Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to follow suit with all his MPs and MLAs, so that all Bihar representatives can quit en masse in protest.
"It will be an unprecedented step and send a powerful message across the country," RJD MP and minister for company affairs Prem Chand Gupta said.
Earlier, the JD(U) sought to win brownie points at the expense of its rivals, the RJD and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), by making all its Lok Sabha MPs resign. It then taunted the RJD and the LJP to follow suit.
Lalu hit back soon after by demanding that not only the Lok Sabha MPs but all public representatives in the state, including the chief minister, should quit and launch a nationwide campaign to highlight the targeting of people from Bihar and UP in Maharashtra.
"There is no sacrifice if only Lok Sabha MPs resign. Elections are due in a few months and our terms are coming to an end. Let everybody quit so that we can prove to the people that we are really prepared to give up power for their sake," he said.
During the 2004 Lok Sabha, the RJD, Congress and the LJP were a part of the UPA and won a majority of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The RJD secured 24 seats, LJP four and the Congress three, while the NDA camp comprising the JD(U) and the BJP got only five and four seats. With the Lok Sabha elections barely months away, both camps are trying to outwit each other in a bid to gain political mileage.
Following the violence unleashed by MNS, Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu joined hands to mount pressure on both the central and Maharashtra governments to take strict action against Raj Thackeray. Under the pressure prime minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, asking him to take immediate steps to rein in the MNS chief.
