“If Pappu Yadav can meet PM, Suraj Bhan can share dais with him, why so much hue and cry over Shahabuddin” say GA leaders
Patna,(BiharTimes): The blame-game over political patronage to criminals in Bihar has intensified. After health minister Tej Pratap it is the deputy chief minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and other RJD leaders, who have launched a massive counter-attack on the BJP over the issue of political morality.
Even the Janata Dal (United) leaders––who are otherwise sulking because of the situation created by Shahabuddin––are not sparing the saffron party leaders. After the party spokesman Neeraj Kumar’s statement that 95 out of 157 BJP candidates who contested elections last year had serious criminal cases against them, another senior party leader, Pawan Verma, alleged that two-thirds of the BJP candidates who contested 2015 Assembly election were tainted.
Tejaswi, who asked BJP leader Sushil Modi, to stop taking high moral ground, was not as aggressive as other RJD leaders like party spokesman Mritunjay Tiwari. He asked the saffron party as to how can it justify the presence of LJP leader, Suraj Bhan, on the dais of Narendra Modi.
As if that was not enough, party leaders have questioned as to how is it that another don Pappu Yadav got Y-category security and time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. How is it that another former controversial figure Sadhu Yadav was welcomed by none else but Narendra Modi on the eve of the last Lok Sabha election.
“Is it that all these people have become saints once they leave RJD,” asked one party leader.
RJD leaders were reacting to the release of Shahabuddin and the presence of an accused in Rajdeo Ranjan murder case, Mohammad Kaif, at the time of former’s release from jail last Saturday. He was later seen with health minister Tej Pratap.
Suraj Bhan was convicted in the murder of former minister Brij Bihari Prasad. He was thus debarred from contesting election and his wife, Veena Devi, fought and won election in the 2014 Lok Sabha election on LJP ticket from Munger.
However, after the Lok Sabha election Suraj Bhan was acquitted by the Patna high court.
Pappu Yadav, an accused in Ajit Sarkar murder case of 1998, too was acquitted before the Lok Sabha election. So he could contest election.
