Sushil Modi fishes in troubled waters; asks Raghuvansh to join

A day after RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh came out against his partys opposition to the quota for upper castes, he received an offer to join the BJP-led NDA by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Sushil Modi said the senior RJD leader should understand that there was no space for people like him in that party and suggested him to join NDA where he would be treated with due respect.

Raghuvansh babu should realize that there is no space for people like him in the RJD. He should come and join the NDA. If he remains in the RJD, he will keep on venting his spleen with nobody to listen to his words, Modi told a regional news channel here when asked about the former Union ministers comments on quotas for upper castes introduced by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

It is time that he moved on and came with us. He will be treated with due respect, Modi who is also a senior BJP leader, said.

In a tweet, Modi also accused RJD founding president Lalu Prasad of having harbored ill will against the upper castes and wondered with what face will leaders like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Shivanand Tiwary and Jagadanand Singh approach upper caste voters.

Singh had on Wednesday disapproved of his partys vehement opposition to the bill passed by the Parliament recently, saying during the 2010 assembly polls which the RJD fought under the leadership of its founding president Lalu Prasad we had promised reservation to the poor among the upper castes. Our party faltered in the Parliament.

However, RJD supremos younger son and political heir Tejashwi Yadav sought to downplay the remarks made by Singh claiming he has said only what we have been saying. He too has questioned why those earning Rs eight lakh a year have been called economically backward in the bill when an annual income of even Rs five lakh is taxable.

BJP-RSS combine is a rabidly casteist one. Most RSS chiefs have come from a single caste. Ditto for the maximum number of members of the Union council of ministers and officials in key positions at the Centre.

"But, the governments failure to deliver has angered all sections of the society including the upper castes. So it has come up with a palliative", Yadav alleged at a public interaction programme Tejashwi ki Chaupal which was webcast live.