Lalu vows to keep fighting for backward classes

A day after the BJP and its allies slammed RJD chief Lalu Prasad for saying the upcoming assembly polls would be a "backward versus forward fight", he vowed not to be silenced in his fight for the Dalits and OBCs' cause.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "free to award 'Bharat Ratna' to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for demanding to end reservation for Dalits and OBCs, but I will not hold back", Lalu Prasad, the former Bihar chief minister, told media here in his reaction to the hue and cry raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders over his remark.

"I will continue to fight for the backwards, Dalits and poor. Even if they hang me for it, I am ready, I will not sit silent... I will fight for poor till reservation for them will not increase," he added.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief also reiterated his demand for making the caste census data public.

Lalu in his first election rally in Raghopur, tried to convey that BJP was anti-poor, anti-Dalit and anti-backward classes and it was actually a pro-forward upper caste party.

The former Bihar chief minister also gave a call to the Dalits and the backward classes including the Other Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes, to unite for defeating the NDA alliance, which he said, intended to end reservations.

"All Dalits and backward classes should unite and vote for the grand alliance of RJD, JD-U and Congress to defeat the BJP-led NDA," he said while reiterating that the Bihar assembly polls were a reflection of "mandal versus kamandal" (backward classes versus Hindutva).