Electoral reverses: RJD members slam Lalu's kin

March 01, 2005

As the Bihar poll results sink in, the Lalu Yadav camp is admitting that the RJD chief's brothers-in-law damaged the party chances.

Party members say that Sadhu and Subhash Yadav were responsible for the poor distribution of tickets.

"I admit that we made mistakes in distributing tickets," said party leader Ramkripal Yadav

"One reason for the defeat is that tickets were not given to the party workers. The other reason for our defeat was the dictatorial behaviour of Sadhu and Subhash," said Dipesh Mandal, a party volunteer.

Sadhu Yadav's attempt to make his wife Indira Yadav contest also failed when she lost from Gopalganj.

Now, in the aftermath of the defeat, the high-profile RJD leader has suddenly become inaccessible.

But it's not just family wars that have left Lalu's supporters feeling dejected.

The Yadav vote bank, comprising 16 per cent of Bihar's population, had stood behind Lalu like a wall for the last 15 years. But this time they were clearly looking for more than just their Yadav identity.

Lalu Yadav has done nothing, no development work has been done. He has just given us a pontoon bridge, nothing beyond that," said Ramkaran, a resident of Danapur Diara.

The Bihar poll results clearly show that there's not only a dent in Lalu's Yadav vote bank, but voters have also rejected his close family members of in the electoral battlefield.