Rahul calls Lalu, Congress expects thaw in ties

PATNA: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi rang up Lalu Prasad to enquire about his well-being on Friday night, hours after the RJD chief suffered a minor injury when a ceiling fan fell on him on the dais at an election rally in East Champaran district, about 160km north of Patna.
According to RJD spokesperson Pragati Mehta, Gandhi contacted the RJD chief and enquired about his health after watching reports on the mishap on news channels.
Sources said it was a courtesy call and the two didn’t talk about the ongoing poll campaign in the state. But Rahul’s phone call is being seen in the political circles as an ‘ice-breaker’ and an attempt to reach out to the RJD chief in the poll season.
Relations between Lalu and the Gandhi family seemed to have soured after Rahul tore away in public the ordinance that the UPA had got to negate the Supreme Court verdict on barring convicted lawmakers from the contesting elections. This came at a time when Lalu was convicted in a fodder scam case and would have been a beneficiary of the ordinance had it taken the shape of law. Lalu had shared close ties with the Gandhis after he stood firmly in her support when on the ‘foreign origin’ issue.
READ ALSO:
Rahul, Sonia unlikely to share dais with Lalu
But since October 2013, Lalu has maintained a distance from the Gandhi family. Their relations suffered another strain when Bihar CM Nitish Kumar went straight to Rahul’s New Delhi residence when Lalu and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav were having initial inhibitions over projecting Nitish as the CM face of the Mahagathbandhan. Rahul’s support turned the tide in favour of Nitish.
When Congress chief Sonia Gandhi held an iftaar party in New Delhi in July this year, Lalu skipped the meet on the pretext that he had organised a similar party at his home in Patna, which was seen as a clear message about his displeasure with the Congress functionaries.
READ ALSO:
Only Nitish, Lalu, Rahul unhappy, says minister
Lalu even avoided sharing the dais with Rahul on September 19 during the Congress vice-president’s rally in Cahmaparan. State Congress members are hopeful that Rahul’s courtesy call to Lalu will set aside the strained relationship and they would project a united face.