RJD resurrects Mandal plank, to hold agitations against Vananchal

RAJGIR (BIHAR), NOV 28: The ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal today resurrected its Mandal plank, pledged not to allow division of Bihar and an...

RAJGIR (BIHAR), NOV 28: The ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal today resurrected its Mandal plank, pledged not to allow division of Bihar and announced a series of agitational programmes against Vananchal and price hike in an apparent bid to consolidate its position during the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

The two-day brainstorming session that concluded here today held an introspection on the party’s debacle during the Lok Sabha elections even though its votes’ share increased by nearly five per cent.

“We polled nearly one crore votes while our allies the Congress and the CPI(M) secured around 46 lakh votes but we lost our precious seats,” RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav told the concluding session.

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Tracing various reasons, including lack of coordination among RJD activists, alleged discriminatory role of central forces and poll observers behind his party’s poor showing, the RJD president foresaw the return of RJD ministry after the Assembly polls in Bihar due early next year.

Coining slogansof veteran socialist Ram Manohar Lohia, he said “Vote ka raj matlab chhot ka raj (rule of votes means rule of the poors)… Hame kaun haryage (who will defeat us, we have formidable mass support),” he said, warning his party workers against any indiscipline.

Yadav revived the Mandal plank in a bid to force a social engineering in favour of his party in “Mandalised Bihar” during the coming Assembly elections.

He called for reservation for Dalits in the judiciary as well as jobs and promotions for them and said the RJD government was committed to providing reservations to extremely backward people in Panchayati Raj institutions.