DMK waves green, Left the Red flag on railway budget

Between themselves, Lalu and Karunanidhi have cornered 23 of the total 55 new trains to be introduced. Lalu has to revive his fortunes in his home state and Karunanidhi has the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls ahead. Lalu’s largesse to Bihar includes new 14 trains. Karunanidhi’s gain is also substantive—nine. The message has not been lost on others. SP chief whip Mohan Singh said, ‘‘Lalu’s rail map obviously has only three centres—Patna, Chhapra and Chennai.’’ Lalu represents Chhapra in the Lok Sabha. The Bihar bonanza has left Laloo’s rivals disarmed. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad dubbed the budget ‘‘populist and prompted by RJD debacle in Assembly polls. He is trying to please people of Bihar.’’ JD(U) leader Digvijay Singh said Lalu’s report card was in fact a result of the cumulative efforts made by Nitish Kumar to tone up the Railways.

The Muslim chief minister poll-plank of LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan had put Lalu to a lot of discomfort during Bihar polls. He has reached out to Muslims by promising to launch three new trains—all named Garib Nawaz Express—from Kishanganj (Bihar), Yeswantpur (Bangalore) and Ranchi (Jharkhand)—to a common destination, Ajmer, to enable them to visit the tomb of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti. Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency has the highest percentage of Muslim voters in the country.

The Bihar-TN alliance manifests itself throughout. The capacity of the rail wheel factory located at Chhapra has been doubled. The Samastipur workshop would manufacture 50 wagons every month, up from the monthly 25 wagons. Chennai’s coach factory would have its capacity enhanced from 1,250 coaches to 1,500 coaches.

In order to buy a Congress silence over the favours done by him to Bihar, particularly Chappra, Lalu has pampered Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi’s LS constituency too, with two new trains — Rae Bareli-Pratapgarh Lokmanya Tilak Link Express and Delhi-Rae Bareli Express.