Lalu plays peacemaker

More than 12 hours after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was shown the door by his father and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad voluntarily played the role of a peacemaker to broker a truce in the warring Yadav clan.

At 8 am on Saturday, he reportedly made a call to Mulayam arguing that the acrimonious developments which took place on Friday evening in Lucknow were neither in the interest of the Yadav family nor the Samajwadi Party. Lalu’s soft corner for Mulayam and his party is quite understandable as the RJD chief’s youngest daughter Raj Laxmi is married to Mulayam’s grand nephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, a Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh.

Lalu told Mulayam that such bickerings within the faction-ridden Samajwadi Party, ahead of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, would help the BJP sweep the polls. Mulayam reportedly told Lalu that he was helpless as his son was not prepared to listen to him and had “raised a bogey of revolt.”