Former Lalu supporter Akhilesh Singh attacks RJD chief

Akhilesh Singh, a one-time die-hard supporter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad who recently quit the party, today heaped scorn on him, claiming that he had become stubborn and was "demolishing" the party.

Singh, who has served as a Union minister of state in the UPA-I government, said loyalists like him were being forced to leave RJD by Prasad as the latter had become "intolerant".

Prasad has become "stubborn. He is only obsessed with the interests of his family and is under the spell of LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan. He no more listens to any suggestion by trusted RJD leaders like me," said the rebel leader, a prominent 'bhumihar' with influence in a number of districts of Bihar.

"The upcoming Bihar elections will be the last one for RJD... the party will become irrelevant after that in Bihar and at national level," Singh, who crossed over from RJD to Congress last week, claimed.

Singh said that even the RJD chief's brother-in-law Subhash Yadav has left the party as he realised that "Prasad is bent upon burning the RJD boat".

"For Lalu Prasad, his pocket agenda is the party agenda," Singh alleged and said  that he and others had persistently tried to persuade the RJD boss to "mend ways" but failed.

Singh, who had earlier served as minister in the Rabri Devi government in Bihar before becoming MP from Motihari in 2004, said the RJD supremo who had started with a cause of social justice and a fight against communal forces "seems to have lost his way and this was the reason minorities and the downtrodden have moved away from him."

Asked why he had joined Congress and not ruling JD(U) after quitting RJD, Singh said that chief minister Nitish Kumar's party is "sitting in the lap of communal RSS" hence there is no question of going there.

"Congress under leadership of Sonia Gandhi is maintaining the long tradition of secularism... besides the influence of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is attracting people like me to the party," he added.