RJD national vice-president and ex-Union minister Devendra Prasad quits party

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national vice-president and former Union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav resigned from the primary membership of the party on Wednesday alleging irregularities in ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha elections.

In a letter written to party president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday, Devendra Prasad Yadav said that he no longer agreed with the RJD’s policy and criticised the party for “paradropping candidates”. “The RJD is running a policy only for Raj (government)... Politics without principle means body without soul,” he said in his letter.

A five-time member of Parliament (MP) from Bihar’s Jhanjharpur, he expressed his displeasure over the party’s decision to make former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Suman Mahaseth as the Grand Alliance (GA) candidate from the constituency.

“If a worker with socialist ideology had been made a candidate from Jhanjharpur, an easy victory could have been achieved. Not only Jhanjharpur, candidates were imported for six-seven other Lok Sabha seats also. If party workers were made candidates on all these seats, they had no complaints,” he said.

Yadav said that he was deeply hurt by the decision of making someone with communal mindset the candidate from Jhanjharpur in place of his workers.

“My conscience is saying that I should not stay in the RJD even for a moment. “I cannot betray my political work, my birthplace and the socialist land of Jhanjharpur,” he said.

Yadav was elected as MP from Jhanjharpur representing the United Janata Dal in 1989, 1991 and 1996, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in 1999 and the RJD in 2004. He was the Union minister for food supplies and consumer affairs in the government of Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. In between, he formed the Samajwadi Janata Dal Democratic, which later merged with the RJD.

A week ago, RJD state vice president Brishin Patel had resigned from the party.

In his resignation letter written to RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, he alleged, “RJD has no need for dedicated workers nor does this party have faith in social justice and communal harmony.”

Another party leader and former MP, Shailesh Kumar Alias Bulo Mandal, who was denied ticket from Bhagalpur as the seat went to the Congress in the seat-sharing arrangements, is all set to join the JD-U on Thursday.