Ready to be 'hanged' but will not allow BJP and RSS to scrap quotas: Lalu

He described the electoral contest in Bihar as one between 'Jungle Raj 2' and 'Mandal Raj 2'

Unfazed by an FIR against him for his alleged casteist remarks, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today said he is ready to be "hanged" but will not allow BJP and RSS to scrap quotas for the backwards and dalits, making it clear that Mandal politics will top his agenda for the Bihar polls.

"I am prepared to be hanged, but will not allow BJP and RSS to succeed in scrapping reservations," Prasad said.

The RJD boss, for long considered a messiah of the backward classes, described the electoral contest in the Hindi heartland state as one between "Jungle Raj 2" and "Mandal Raj 2".

"BJP has given the slogan of Jungle Raj-2 against which I am saying Mandal Raj-2... What is the crime in saying this?" Prasad told reporters, a day after an FIR was registered against him for his alleged casteist comments.

Addressing a rally to launch his son Tejaswi Yadav's campaign in Raghopur from where he is making his electoral debut, Lalu had on Sunday described the assembly elections as a direct fight between "the backward castes and forward castes" and given a call to Yadavs and other backward castes to rally behind the secular alliance to defeat BJP-led NDA.

The Election Commission had found the remarks violative of the model code of conduct for elections and ordered registration of an FIR against him.

Several top BJP leaders including its president Amit Shah have while stumping warned people against return of "Jungle Raj" if the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance is voted to power. The opposition had coined the 'jungle raj' phrase to describe alleged lawlessness during the 15-year RJD rule from 1990 to 2005.

Lalu and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had quickly latched on to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent call for a review of quotas and claimed that the Modi government wanted to scrap reservations, a sensitive issue in the state to which B P Mandal, the author of the Mandal Commission Report, belonged.

Sharp polarisation along caste lines had helped Lalu and his party stay in power for an uninterrupted 15-year stint.