RJD workers meet in show of unity

With its charismatic supremo and main crowd-puller Lalu Prasad Yadav convicted for corruption and away in jail in Ranchi beginning a five-year prison term, the RJD on Friday held its first workers’ meeting after the shock, trying to put up a show of unity ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. While one of Mr Yadav’s supporters, 70-year-old Bantilal Sah, a local RJD leader in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, collapsed and died reportedly from shock after learning of Mr Yadav’s jail sentence from television, another supporter continued the fast he began since Monday in protest against Mr Yadav’s conviction in a fodder scam case. The RJD chief’s younger son Tejaswi Yadav, a 22-year-old former IPL cricketer who had been with him in Ranchi since the time of his conviction, returned home to Patna on Frid-ay amid enthusiastic welcome by hundreds of party workers and leaders. Seen by many as Yadav’s successor, he thanked the workers for their support and asked them to keep fighting against the “political conspiracy”.