BJP targets RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his family over charges framed in IRCTC scam case

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (October 13, 2025) launched a scathing attack on Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi Yadav, after a Delhi court framed charges against them in the IRCTC scam case.

At a press conference, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad urged the people of Bihar “never to be taken in by Tejashwi Yadav’s promises, because jobs will not be provided and your land will be taken”. “Mr. Tejashwi — who in the run-up to the State Assembly polls has promised to change Bihar — had himself been accused of fraud. When someone has such a reputation and such charges, how can he change Bihar?” he asked.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Mr. Lalu Prasad, during his tenure as Railway Minister, extended favour to hotel owners by leasing two railway hotels. In lieu of the alleged favour, a prime land in Patna was sold to a company controlled by his close associate. The company, along with the land, was later taken over by his family at a throwaway price, the Central agency claimed.

‘Massive plunder’

Stating that Mr. Lalu Prasad and his family members were facing allegations in multiple cases, the BJP leader said the CBI chargesheet exposed their “massive plunder”.

“If Lalu Prasad’s entire tenure were to be summarised in three sentences, they would be: consuming fodder, drinking coal-tar, and manipulating government property and tenders to grab land. A fourth model should also be included: “Jameen Do, Naukri Lo (Give Land, Take Job)...the most striking feature of this model has been that all its benefits were confined solely to the family, with no one outside receiving anything,” he said.

The BJP leader said most victims of the ‘Give Land, Take Job’ scheme were the poor whose land parcels were taken in exchange for jobs. “This is the so-called social justice of the Congress and the RJD, where the rights of the poor were violated, and corruption and nepotism were promoted in their name,” he said.

Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad said the RJD supremo had already been convicted in the “fodder scam” and the trial in one “coal-tar scam” was ongoing. Citing Mr. Tejashwi’s affidavit from the 2020 State Assembly polls, he alleged that between 1993 and 2007 he possessed nine agricultural lands... Where did these nine plots come from?... Tejashwi Yadav was born in 1990,” he said.

Alleging that Ms. Rabri Devi owned three agricultural plots and four non-agricultural plots, one commercial property, and five residential properties, he also asked about her sources of income.