Patna: A day after the Aam Aadmi Party swept Delhi Assembly polls defeating BJP by 62 to 8 seats, a poster war erupted in Bihar targeting former Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patron Lalu Prasad with state Assembly polls slated later this year.
The posters have been pasted across the Income-Tax roundabout traffic intersection and the Dakbunglow roundabout intersection.
They slam the Lalu Prasad family for the corruption and condition of Bihar following the RJD’s rule in the state. The RJD chief is serving life term in fodder scam cases and is currently admitted in a hospital in Ranchi.
Lalu Prasad is shown wearing colourful goggles like a hero in the posters titled “Thugs of Bihar”. The poster appear in both Hindi and English.
They read: “LaRa film’s presents”, targetting the RJD supremo and his wife Rabri Devi, who is also a former Chief Minister.
The film reel on the poster depicts the condition of Bihar during the RJD rule in the state.
The posters also accused the Lalu Prasad regime of massacres on the basis of caste in the state — one of them being the Bhagalpur massacre.
However, it is yet not clear who put up these posters in state capital, where the elections are due November-December.
Bihar Minister and JD-U leader Neeraj Kumar said: “Who put these posters are yet to be known. But with the poster based on a Hindi film title ‘Thugs of Hindustan’, the poster has expressed the condition of Bihar during the RJD rule from 1990 to 2005.”
“The poster has highlighted how the people of Bihar suffered during that era…,” he added. Lalu Prasad- and later Rabri Devi-led RJD ruled Bihar 1990-2004.
While the Nitish Kumar-led JD-U came to power in 2005 and has been at the helm to date. Of which, JD-U and BJP led NDA were in power from 2005-2013, later JD-U joined the Grand Alliance (GA) with RJD and Congress in 2015. The GA defeated BJP-led NDA in 2015 Assembly polls. However Nitish Kumar in mid-2017, ditched the GA and joined hands with the BJP.
The RJD did not hold back and quick to retribute, put out posters that said: “Do Hazaar Bees, Nitish Kumar Finish”.
The RJD poster depicted the situation of health and education sector in Bihar and also highlighted the deteriorating law and order condition in the state.
The poster also showed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as ‘kursi pujari’ (one who wants to remain in power).
The poster wars are likely to hot up as election nears.
