Show me my hotels and take them: Ram Kripal to Lalu

“I want Laluji to identify my hotels and I will register them in his name, Whatever property I own in Patna was earned by my forefathers,” Ram Kripal said. (Source: Express file photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

A day after Lalu Prasad alleged his former aide Ram Kripal Yadav “owns several hotels in Patna”, the Union minister invited Lalu to identify the hotels and said he would then give those to him. “I want Laluji to identify my hotels and I will register them in his name, Whatever property I own in Patna was earned by my forefathers,” Ram Kripal said.

“Laluji, who had come to Patna with a couple of utensils, should give people an account of the wealth he has accumulated across the country.” He added “Yaduvanshis (Yadavs) do not mean Lalu and his family”. Ram Kripal, who quit the RJD before the Lok Sabha elections and won on a BJP ticket from Pataliputra, defeating Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti, said of Lalu: “Your anti-development politics will not work when over 60 per cent voters are young and have aspirations.”

The Election Commission has taken note of Lalu’s remarks, with chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi saying the EC would look into the details and take appropriate action. The BJP’s Nand Kishore Yadav and Sushil Modi, who was addressing a rally in Arwal, and NDA partner Upendra Kushwaha slammed Lalu for his “casteist remarks”.