8 hours ago
Last Updated:January 18, 2025, 20:08 IST
Rahul Gandhi was invited to 10, Circular Road here, the government bungalow allotted to Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, by their son Tejashwi Yadav
Rahul Gandhi meets Lalu Yadav and his family | Image/X
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was on Saturday on a whistle-stop tour of Bihar, took some time off to meet RJD president Lalu Prasad, an old political ally and family friend.
The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha was invited to 10, Circular Road here, the government bungalow allotted to Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi, by their son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav whom he had met earlier in the day.
Gandhi and Yadav had crossed paths at a city hotel where the Congress leader freshened up before addressing two back-to-back public events.
Yadav was at the hotel along with his parents and other members of the family, who together control the RJD, for the party’s national executive.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Gandhi, Yadav told reporters “I told him that my entire family will be pleased to meet him after we are done with our respective engagements. He has said he will come to our home".
A few hours later, after having addressed a symposium on the Constitution and a function at state Congress headquarters, besides spending some time with students protesting alleged irregularities in a recent BPSC exam, Gandhi reached 10, Circular Road.
The former Congress president, who was on his first tour of Bihar since last year’s Lok Sabha polls, was accompanied by state party leaders.
Leaders of the two parties got a chance to intermingle while Gandhi shared a quick bite with Prasad and Yadav before boarding his return flight.
The meeting is expected to result in a much-needed thaw, ahead of assembly polls due later this year, in relations between RJD and Congress which had of late been under strain despite Prasad having been one of the staunchest supporters of Sonia Gandhi.
Last month, AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Shahnawaz Alam had stirred a hornet’s nest by asserting that for the assembly elections, “strike rates in Lok Sabha polls" must be taken into account to arrive at a seat-sharing formula.
This was seen as an obvious provocation to the RJD, which had contested 23 seats in the general elections but won only four, as against the Congress, which fought nine and bagged three.
Soon afterwards, Prasad ticked off the Congress by stating that he was in favour of West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee heading the INDIA bloc.
The spat had led NDA partners like Union minister Chirag Paswan to chuckle and predict that the opposition coalition would come apart in the run-up to assembly polls because of “ambitions of the Congress".
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)Location : First Published:January 18, 2025, 20:08 IST
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