Lalu b’day sees LJP-RJD unity

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RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 63rd birthday celebration at his Patna home on Friday had less pomp than before but was markedly loaded with political symbolism with an eye on Bihar’s looming Assembly polls. The event was more political in nature than personal.

With two large birthday cakes designed in the shape of lantern and house — the election symbols of the RJD and its ally LJP, respectively — Mr Yadav made use of the celebrations to send out the message of a stronger RJD-LJP unity than is normally believed. Accompanied by wife Rabri Devi, the former railway minister and erstwhile Bihar strongman cut the cakes along with LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan. The two leaders, who have been bitter rivals earlier, then jovially fed bits of the cakes to each other.
The Yadav couple and Mr Paswan were surrounded by a large number of supporters and leaders of both the RJD and the LJP around a flower-bedecked table carrying the cakes in the front yard of Rabri Devi’s official residence. Both Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan then vowed to oust Bihar’s NDA government led by Mr Nitish Kumar in the Assembly polls due in November. The RJD last week nominated the politically marginalised Mr Paswan for a Rajya Sabha seat.
“I do not know the exact date I was born, but my supporters have long been celebrating this day and calling it the Urdu day, too. On this day, it is our pledge to overthrow the NDA government in the coming elections,” said Mr Yadav. In earlier years, his birthday cakes used to bear likenesses of a temple, a mosque and a church, reflecting the former Bihar chief minister’s enduring image as a preserver of communal harmony.
Ms Rabri Devi, formerly Bihar chief minister and currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, displayed an unusually motherly nature as she fed bits of the birthday cakes to several party workers, who kept touching both her and Mr Yadav’s feet. Mr Yadav then walked around the yard, constantly approached by supporters carrying bouquets and overseeing a feast he had organised for journalists and party activists alike.