Pappu Yadav launches new party

Expelled Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Pappu Yadav on Tuesday announced the formation of a new political party and invited former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to join him.

The move is designed to prevent the consolidation of backward and Mahadalit votes in favour of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad’s newly formed alliance.

The intent was clear from his pledge that it is time now for Bihar to have “either a Muslim or a Mahadalit Chief Minister”. The Muslim vote is a critical component of the JD(U)-RJD alliance.

Pappu Yadav is a five-term MP who was expelled from the RJD last month. His wife Ranjeet Ranjan is a Congress MP in the Lok Sabha.

He will only be a patron of his new party — the Jan Adhikar Party — to avoid disqualification from the Lok Sabha. The party would soon decide on how many seats it would fight in the Bihar Assembly elections, likely to be held in September-October, he said.

At a press conference here, Pappu Yadav said he is standing against the “casteism” of Nitish and “communalism” of the BJP.

However, his utterances at the announcement of his political outfit were decidedly more critical of Nitish and Lalu than the BJP.

“We have stood against Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav’s dirty and low-level politics,” he said. “Lalu Yadav is the biggest enemy of Yadavs. And Nitish Kumar has animosity towards people of the Yadav community and the Muslims. They should not be allowed to play their fraudulent fames with people,” he added.

His only objection to the BJP was the “statements made by the likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti”.

“If Narendra Modi wants to implement his development agenda, he should silence such people,” he said.

When asked why he was harsher on his “secular” friends than the BJP, Pappu Yadav said: “I have said I am against communalism. But I have known Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav for a long time. They are playing vicious politics with the people of backward and poor communities.”