RJD leaders deny 'match-fixing' over Lokpal Bill in RS

Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Rajniti Prasad, who was seen tearing a copy of the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha, said on Friday there was no "match-fixing" between his party and the Congress to scuttle voting on the legislation and that he had reacted only on the "spur of the moment".

Prasad said he has no repentance about what he did.

"There was no match-fixing between RJD and Congress to scuttle the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha... I reacted angrily to the bill on the spur of the moment... I have no repentance (on what I did)," Prasad, a close aide of RJD President Lalu Prasad, told PTI.

His party colleague Ramkripal Yadav echoed similar views.

"Since the government did not give any satisfactory reply to our queries regarding how the reservation for SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women would apply when there will be only four members from non-judicial side in the selection committee, we could not resist ourselves and staged a protest," Yadav said.

Yadav said RJD would continue to protest the Lokpal Bill in the present form even in the future.

Prasad and Yadav were seen trooping into the well of the House and shouting slogans when Union Minister V Narayansamy was speaking after the end of the debate.

While they were busy in staging noisy protest, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was present in the Lok Sabha members' gallery of the Upper House calmly watching the scene.

Another RJD Rajya Sabha MP Zabir Hussain, who was also present in the house but did not join the duo in the protest, said he was also agitated over the question of reservation in the anti-graft body.

However, Hussain said he did not join the protest as he had served as chairman of Bihar Legislative Council for nearly a decade.

The RJD has four members in the Upper House. The fourth one Prem Chand Gupta, who was a minister in the UPA I, also did not stage a noisy protest.

While the RJD members are non-repentant on manner of their protest, the Janata Dal-United alleged it was a "match-fixing" between Congress and RJD to scuttle the bill in the Rajya Sabha.

JD-U leader in the Rajya Sabha Shivanand Tiwari said after this action RJD president Lalu Prasad would further invite the wrath of the people.

"Now the entire nation will castigate him for defending corruption," Tiwari said.