Sushil Modi's 'Lalu Leela' released in Patna

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has come out with a nearly 200-page book titled "Lalu Leela", documenting "benami" land deals allegedly involving the RJD national president and his family members.

The book was released at a programme in Patna Thursday.

It is a compilation of documents distributed to mediapersons by Modi in the past one year on acquisitions of properties made allegedly by Lalu Prasad and his family.

"Lalu Leela" carries blurbs by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari, who have praised Modi's "courage" to bring before the public the tales of corruption.

The preface has been penned by another Union minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad. He praises Modi for his over 40 press conferences since April 2017 to "expose the wrongdoings of the Lalu family".

He says, "the change of regime in Bihar on July 27, 2017 was a result of the tireless efforts of Sushil Modi".

Modi's allegations against Lalu Prasad's family had triggered a political uproar last year in Bihar, then ruled by the Grand Alliance comprising the RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and the Congress.

Rattled by demands of resignation of Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad's younger son who was the Deputy chief minister, Kumar resigned from his post in July and walked out of the Grand Alliance.

A day after, he formed a new government with the BJP and Modi became the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Several Union ministers and state leaders, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shahnawaz Hussai, attended the book launch.

The RJD and its ally Hindustani Awam Morcha have alleged that Modi "depends on Lalu for his own political survival".

RJD national spokesman Manoj Jha said "even if Sushil Modi were to get reborn seven times, he would never be able to match the stature of Lalu Prasad".

"For him, Lalu is like a fuel which he keeps using whenever he realizes that his own political future is imperiled," Jha said.

In a statement, HAM chief and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said sarcastically, "Sushil Modi is performing aarti of Lalu ji. He has to do so. After all he depends so heavily on Lalu for his own political survival".