Alleging that Union Ministers Lalu Prasad and Jai Prakash Narain Yadav were a 'threat to the process of free and fair elections' in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party shot off a letter on Wednesday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to drop the two Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders from the government.
In a separate letter to the Election Commission, party general secretary Arun Jaitley demanded investigations into the alleged violation of code of conduct by the two Ministers.
'One (Lalu Prasad) has attempted to influence the impartiality of Central Reserve Police Force, while the other (Jai Prakash Narain Yadav) has actually participated in the crime...if members of his Council of Ministers become a threat to a free and fair electoral process, the country expects the Prime Minister to use his prerogative and distance his government from such individuals. The country expects you to act in this matter', Jaitley said in his letter to Dr Singh.
In his letter, Jaitley took strong exception to the meeting two senior CRPF officials had with Lalu Prasad on October 16, as also the alleged pressure exerted by Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, Union Minister of State for Water Resources, on the state police to allow his brother, Vijay Prakash Yadav, to escape from custody.
The minister's brother, a candidate in the Assembly elections from Jamui, was arrested by local police while allegedly carrying arms, explosives, alcohol and currency notes in a vehicle.