Lalu’s son Tej Pratap plays Lord Krishna on New Year’s day

Bihar health minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tej Pratap Yadav decided to usher the new year by dressing up as Hindu deity Lord Krishna and playing the flute to greet his father.

On Sunday, Tej Pratap wore a blue jacket and shawl, and a red headgear with a peacock feather on it and also played the flute to his cows at his 10 Circular Road residence that has been allocated to his mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi.

“A devotee in Vrindavan gifted me all this and asked me to wear them on New Year, so I am celebrating like this today,” he told new agency ANI.

His photograph went viral on social media. Even former deputy chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Kumar Modi could not resist retweeting his picture, which was shared on different social media platforms.

The minister, who was on a pilgrimage to Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district recently, had courted a controversy by urging the Centre to impose a ban on cow slaughter on the lines of the Central government’s demonetisation initiative.

The minister had also described himself as the “descendant of Lord Krishna” during his trip to Vrindavan and Mathura.

RJD leaders and workers met their seniors to exchange wishes on the beginning of the new year. However, Tej Pratap stole the show, much to the discomfiture of religious hardliners.

State finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui, state party chief Ram Chandra Purbe, ministers Alok Mehta, and Shiv Chandra Ram and Sanoj Yadav also met Prasad with bouquets of flowers and offered wishes.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, away in his hometown Nalanda, called up Lalu on Sunday morning and exchanged greetings.