Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Misa Bharti stirred the hornet’s nest with her comments at a public rally on Wednesday, 16 January, when she said she felt like chopping the hands off RJD loyalist-turned-rebel Ram Kripal Yadav in 2014, when he defected to join the BJP.
According to reports, she said
“He (Ram Kripal Yadav) used to cut chaff. We had huge respect for him. However, we stopped respecting him when he went on to join hands with Sushil Kumar Modi. At that time I felt like cutting his hands with the same chaff cutting machine.”Misa Bharti
Ram Kripal Yadav is a Union minister now in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.
Bharti said that she is "confident of her win this time" as she didn't get enough time to prepare during the 2014 polls.
Ram Kripal Yadav, once a close aide of RJD supremo Lalu Yadav, had quit the party in 2014. He was given the ticket to contest from Pataliputra against Bharti whom he defeated.
At the time, Yadav had also said, "Narendra Modi is the man India is look up to".
After his win, Yadav had said that he had been an earnest worker of the RJD but felt betrayed after he was denied a ticket.
The Pataliputra seat has always been a prestigious one for the RJD, as both father Lalu Prasad Yadav and daughter Misa Bharti have contested unsuccessfully from there. While Yadav lost the seat to Ranjan Yadav in 2009, his daughter lost it to Ram Kripal Yadav in the 2014 polls.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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