Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is at it again. Close on the heels of asking an IAF pilot to land the chopper on the National Highway-28 in Bihar recently, the RJD chief on Wednesday got a grounded aircraft of Indian (Airlines) replaced by a ‘ferry flight’ at Patna airport. Lalu was supposed to leave for Delhi by Indian (IC 410) on Wednesday morning. But the flight was grounded after it developed a technical snag. “A livid Lalu slammed the Indian officials for poor maintenance and asked them to talk to their superiors for an immediate replacement,” airport sources said.

Later realising that, unlike Railways, it’s not easy to get a replacement for a grounded aircraft, Lalu took it upon himself to do the arrangement. He rang up Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and said that he had an “important meeting” in Delhi at 3:00 pm, and therefore, a replacement flight should be sent immediately.

Within a couple of hours, a ferry flight with engineers landed at the Patna airport. Eventually, Lalu, along with Union Minister Akhilesh Singh and a 100 odd passengers left for Delhi at 2:10 pm.