BJP to seek legal opinion on cancellation of Lalu's bail

Patna, Aug 11: BJP on Tuesday said it would seek a legal opinion on moving court for cancellation of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's bail as he was "doing politics in breach of bail terms.

"Prasad was granted bail by the Supreme Court in December, 2013, a couple of months after he had been convicted in the fodder scam case and sentenced to five years in prison, besides Rs 25 lakh fine by a special CBI court in Jharkhand.

"We are taking legal opinion on moving court for cancellation of bail to the RJD supremo as he is doing politics in breach of bail terms," senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters in reply to a question.

"Prasad is a convict in the multi-crore fodder scam and out on bail which has strings attached to it, but he is doing political works," he said, adding a convict out on bail must not carry out political activity.

The CBI had successfully moved court for cancellation of bail of the former Haryana chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala, who was granted bail on health ground after being convicted in the teachers recruitment scam.

The BJP's bid to seek RJD supremo's bail cancellation is aimed to nullify his efforts to consolidate the Other Backward Caste (OBC) votebank in favour of the secular alliance comprising the RJD, JD(U), Congress and NCP in the forthcoming poll.

Prasad has consistently demanded release of caste data of the OBCs carried out under the Socio-Economic Caste Census by the Centre in 2011, a move the NDA government is resisting on the plea that the said census of castes had not been completed.

The BJP, which believes that it has a realistic chance to wrest power from the JD(U) in the poll, too has been wooing the OBCs, particularly the sizeable number of Prasad's castemen - Yadavas - to tilt the scale in its favour.

PTI