Rahul Raj's killing triggers large scale resignations

The alleged killing of Patna youth, Rahul Raj in Mumbai, has triggered large scale resignation of MPs and MLAs from the UPA and the NDA constituents in Bihar.

While Janata Dal (U) would handover the resignation of its five Lok Sabha MPs to the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday, the RJD Chief Lalu Prasad is collecting resignation of his party’s MPs and legislators.

“We will meet the Speaker at 11 am on Friday,” said Bihar JD (U) president and Lok Sabha MP, Rajiv Ranjan Singh. The JD (U) has served an ultimatum to the Centre to initiate action against the MNS leader by November 6 failing which its Lok Sabha MPs would resign. “We will submit the resignation of all our MPs tomorrow as no action has been taken against the culprits even after an all-party delegation of Bihar MPs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few days back," the JD (U) president said.

The JD-U has demanded action against MNS chief Raj Thackeray under MCOCA, a judicial enquiry into violence against North Indians in the last two years in Maharashtra and a CBI probe into the killing of Rahul Raj from Bihar and Dharmendra Dev from Uttar Pradesh.

However, the party has no plans to seek the resignation of its Rajya Sabha MPs, MLAs and MLCs, as announced by RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

The resignation by JD (U) MPs and the subsequent call of the RJD Chief for resignation of all MPs, MLAs and MLCs from Bihar has triggered another round of political debate with leaders alleging each other for indulging in the game of one-upmanship. The RJD has set a deadline of November 15 for collecting resignations of its MPs and legislators. “So far 39 MLA and MLCs and 14 MPs have submitted their resignation letter to the party chief,” said the RJD national spokesperson, Shyam Rajak. The RJD has 24 Lok Sabha MPs, four Rajya Sabha MPs, 54 MLA and 15 MLC.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, however, maintained that “it’s an ammunition in the hand of central ministers from Bihar.” Kumar said that resignation has a motive. “It’s written in Constitution where resignations are to be handed over. It’s not a collector’s item,” he said taking a dig at the Railway Minister. “After all who will extend Bihar’s voice in New Delhi. Obviously the Union ministers from Bihar,” he added.

However, no other political party had come forward on this issue. Though the Congress leaders including Union Minister of state for Home Dr Shakeel Ahmad and Congress Legislature Party leader Dr Ashok Kumar have supported RJD’s demand, they have not yet responded by submitting resignations to their respective party presidents.

As things stand today, the Bihar politicians, who displayed rare unity by meeting the Prime Minister in a delegation on the MNS-triggered violence against north Indians, are divided over the issue. “We will wait till tomorrow

BJP leader and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi was not in favour of resignation politics. “if somebody has to resign over the issue, then they should be Lalu Prasad and ramvilas Paswan,” he said.