RJD stalwarts join JD(U)

PATNA: Rated as the best organisation man among the current crop of the Lohiaite stream of socialist `parivar' in the state, Barh sitting MP Vijay Krishna quit the RJD and joined JD(U) here on Friday. Yet another sitting MP of the RJD from Jehanabad Ganesh Prasad Singh, loyal to the Lohiaite stream, also joined the JD(U) on the day.
Their entry into the JD(U) would give immediate thrust to the stock of the JD(U) nominees in the two parliamentary constituencies of Munger and Pataliputra, JD(U) state president and erstwhile MP from Begusarai Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, and LJP deserter Ranjan Prasad Yadav, respectively.The RJD candidates for the two respective seats are Ram Badan Rai, a JD(U) MLC and deserter, and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad himself.
CM Nitish Kumar, who welcomed their entry into his party, said it in as many words. "Both Vijay Krishna and Ganesh Prasad Singh have been leaders in their own right. Vijay Krishna does not need any introduction. Now they (Lalu and Ram Vilas) should think of their stakes not only in Jehanabad, but also in Pataliputra. Lalu ji will be anxious about the seat."
Nitish was also accompanied by party's Rajya Sabha member N K Singh, state president and national general secretary Shivanand Tiwary in welcoming them. The party's state headquarters teemed with visibly joyful workers, akin to a big development in the party.
In fact, Nitish gave the impression that it was not a small development, despite the fact that Krishna had defeated Nitish in Barh in the 2004 paliamentary poll. Barring N K Singh, they all had started as socialist youth leaders and entered active politics through the JP movement of 1974. Their association went as far back as the late 1960s, or the early 1970s.
In 1994, after the formation of Samata Party by the George Fernandes and Nitish duo, both Nitish and Krishna were closeted in a room in Delhi to discuss the issue of deserting Lalu. "Vijay Krishna remained with Lalu and Nitish chose his own way," Tiwary said. Nitish was overwhelmed: "That we are together tells everything. I don't have words to express my emotions. I will be relieved of the burden of building the party. He has connectivity everywhere in the state."
He said Ganesh belonged to "sharafat ki dhara (stream of ethical politics)," and called upon all the RJD and LJP rank and file feeling suffocated in their parties to join the JD(U), since it was the party of the future, which practised ethical politics divorced from the feudal mores of Lalu or Ram Vilas.