Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took some time off from his day-long whirlwind visit to Patna and met RJD chief Lalu Yadav and his family. He also visited a cowshed located in Lalu Yadav’s residence and patted the cows and goats.
The former Congress president also visited a temple with the Yadav family and sought blessings.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav called Rahul Gandhi his “elder brother” and shared photos of the latter’s visit to the temple and the cowshed at his home at 10, Circular Road.
The Gandhi scion had a “cordial meeting” with Lalu Yadav and his family members at their residence. He was presented with a portrait of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar during the meeting.
Chants by Congress workers in praise of Rahul Gandhi filled the air as Lalu Yadav sprung to his feet and rushed to the gate, warmly greeting the Congress MP on his first tour of Bihar since the Lok Sabha polls last year when both had shared the stage at several rallies.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two leaders bade goodbye to each other, with shutterbugs trying to capture the moment.
During his day-long visit in Patna, Rahul Gandhi addressed a symposium on the Constitution and a function at the state Congress headquarters. He also spent some time with students protesting against alleged irregularities in a recent BPSC exam.
The meeting between Lalu Yadav and Rahul Gandhi 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 Lalu Yadav having been one of the staunchest supporters of Sonia Gandhi.
Last month, Congress 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 for 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 chief 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 the “ambitions of the Congress”.
(with inputs from PTI)
