Laloo takes digs at Naidu
A Special Correspondent
Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has unleashed a torrent of caustic remarks against the Telugu Desam Party and its supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
'Felicitating' the TDP's Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi on his election as Lok Sabha Speaker, Laloo Yadav poured vitriol against Naidu for ditching the United Front and lampooned his stand of 'remaining equidistance and neutral' from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Blasting Naidu for joining hands with the BJP on the Speaker's issue, he said, ''Neutral gear mein koi gadi nahi chalti (no vehicle can move when it is in neutral gear). But what we saw today was that the vehicle was moving in the top gear.''
Encouraged by loud cheers from the Opposition benches, Laloo Yadav trained his guns on the BJP, too, as the fodder scam threatened to catch up with him.
''Chara chara,'' screamed the Treasury benches as he stood up to speak. Warning the Treasury benches that they were 'inviting trouble' by 'provoking him', Laloo Yadav burst out in his rustic style. ''BJP ka subsidy chal raha hai.''
Despite his professed pro-backward class stand, Laloo Yadav did not spare even the first dalit Speaker. ''I hope that Balayogi will soon have a deputy speaker as competent and scholarly as him to lighten his burden.''
Elections '98
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