patna

Updated: Feb 15, 2020 22:22 IST

A proposed bus rally by Bihar’s leading opposition party, the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) has triggered a controversy in state politics with the ruling party, the Janata Dal United (JDU), alleging that the bus in which leader of opposition and RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad’s son Tejaswi Yadav will set out for a statewide campaign on unemployment is registered in the name of a person who is below the poverty line (BPL) in order to hide its real owner and his “ill gotten money”.

Tejashwi Yadav’s ‘Berozgari Hatao Yatra’ is set to kick off from the Bihar Veterinary College ground in Patna on February 23, the ‘yatra’ will lead to rallies in every district of the state and the luxury bus that Yadav will travel in has been named ‘Yuva Kranti Rath’.

“Tejashwi Yadav will soon take out ‘Shahi Yatra’ (a royal journey) and its truth is that the high tech bus (Yuva Kranti Rath) belongs to Mangal Pal, who is registered under Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Tejashwi must tell who did financial fraud with him & bought the bus under his name,” JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar was quoted as asking by news agency ANI.

Bihar assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year and the RJD bus yatra is being seen as a pre-campaign exercise to energise and mobilize party cadre amid dissent brewing in the party over Tejashwi’s leadership.

Mangal Pal, the man in whose name the bus is registered, however, said he did not belong to BPL category.

“I do not belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. I am a contractor. The person under whom I am working has bought the bus under my name. All allegations are false,” Pal told ANI.