RJD slams Bihar CM Samrat Choudhary for calling Lalu Prasad ‘greatest villain’

Published 23 June 2026 · local

Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders on Tuesday (June 23, 2026) criticised Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary for calling their party chief Lalu Prasad as “sabse

Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders on Tuesday (June 23, 2026) criticised Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary for calling their party chief Lalu Prasad as “sabse bada khalnayak [greatest villain]”. RJD MP Manoj Jha said: “We uphold modesty of language in public speeches. We don’t even describe villains as villains and here they [the BJP leaders] are describing the greatest nayak [hero] of this land as biggest khalnayak [biggest villain]. Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, though a product of Laluji’s pathsala [school], could not take his lessons well and is now part of an altogether different school. He has become a Chief Minister without political mandate after joining the BJP.” Earlier on June 22, at a party function in Patna, Mr. Choudhary had mocked Mr. Prasad and his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi for “sulking over downgrading their security cover” and said, “the biggest villain, who all are scared of, is now living in fear and it is a proof that Bihar has now a susashan ki sarkar [good governance]”.

State RJD president Mangani Lal Mandal too reacted to Mr. Choudhary’s “unwarranted and immature statement”. “People consider Lalu Prasad as a fighter who made inroads into people’s heart because of his welfare politics”. Mr. Mandal claimed that people from backward classes were “aggrieved” by such a statement. On downgrading of security cover to his party leaders, Mr. Mandal said there were established rules and parameters for bungalow allocation which should not be violated and the security around the bungalow, where two former Chief Ministers, including a Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council [Ms. Devi] reside, had been downgraded, while the BJP government had beefed up security for people who were not even MLAs or MLCs. Party leaders and Mr. Jha alleged that the BJP-led government in the State was playing with the rhetoric of security to hide its failure in protecting the poor, women and children, especially those coming from the marginalised sections of the society.

The RJD has sent a committee of leaders led by party leader and former Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary to Bhojpur to get to the truth following the alleged encounter of a youth from Bilauti village under the Shahpur police station on June 17. “The committee has submitted its report to the party leadership saying that the incident was carried out as part of a well-planed conspiracy”, said RJD leaders. The party condemned the incident and demanded that the guilty must be punished. Following hue and cry over the incident, the Bihar government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the alleged encounter and put some police personnel under suspension. Meanwhile, while campaigning for the by-poll at Bankipur in Patna, which has fallen vacant after five-time BJP MLA Nitin Nabin was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha, Jan Suraaj Party chief and former poll strategist Prashant Kishor alleged that Mr. Choudhury had been a “murder accused and class seventh fail.