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Union minister Giriraj Singh on Saturday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal, founded and headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, were heading for a merger.
The senior BJP leader made the claim when reporters asked him about Kumar's insistence that all constituents of the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) finalise seat-sharing arrangements for Lok Sabha polls by January.
"I share personal equations with Lalu ji. He has whispered many things in my ear that I cannot disclose in public. But let me tell you this much that the JD-U is going to merge with RJD soon. So, the question of seat sharing does not arise," said Singh with a glint of mischief.
Notably, both Lalu and Singh recently boarded the same flight to return from Delhi where the RJD supremo was attending the INDIA bloc meet while the Union minister was taking part in the just concluded Parliament session.
Upon landing in Patna on Thursday evening, Singh had told journalists that on board the plane Lalu, his bete noire, had said, "The time has come to make (son and Deputy CM) Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister of Bihar."
Yadav, who was on the same flight, later deftly thwarted the attempt to drive a wedge between himself and his boss, claiming that the Union minister had, in fact, given vent to his own frustrations over uncertain prospects in the BJP and the central government while exchanging pleasantries with the father-son duo.
When reporters asked Yadav about the latest forecast of a 'merger' by the BJP leader, he replied, "Singh likes to make outrageous statements in a desperate bid to hog some limelight. Nobody would have paid attention to him had he not said something outlandish."
Similar views were expressed by JD-U president Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' when he was asked about the prediction of his party's merger with RJD.
"Let us not discuss Giriraj Singh. He is a TRP monger. He will keep saying things that help him grab eyeballs," said Lalan, who also took a dig at the BJP leader for his advocacy of 'Jhatka' meat, with an appeal to Hindus to shun consuming 'Halal' meat.
"We know that in days of yore, Giriraj Singh had a voracious appetite and could finish off 2.5 kg of mutton. He should tell us whether he was then okay with Halal or ensured a special supply of Jhatka for himself," remarked Lalan.
Interestingly, Singh's newfound fascination for 'Jhatka' meat had on Thursday drawn a tongue-in-cheek remark from Tejashwi Yadav too, who claimed that the BJP leader asked his father, known to be a generous host, to organise a feast of mutton.
Yadav claimed that in reply his father had told him that he would be happy to do so but first needed to arrange for an animal slaughtered by a single blow of the blade, the process which the Hindi colloquialism 'Jhatka' denotes.
When Singh was asked about this, he said with obvious irritation, "Yes, I am looking forward to having a feast of mutton along with Lalu ji. And I will ensure that like me he too eats Jhatka."