Chapra, June 2
RJD chief and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav today won the Chapra Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest BJP rival and former Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy by over 65,000 votes.
Mr Yadav’s victory, that took the RJD’s tally of Lok Sabha seats to 24 out of a total of 40, demolished all hopes the NDA might have had of stalling the RJD-led secular alliance’s juggernaut with its tally remaining stuck at 11.
Rudy is the seventh minister in the erstwhile Vajpayee government from Bihar to have lost the 2004 general elections the others being Sharad Yadav, C.P. Thakur, Sayed Shahnawaz Hussaqin, Hukumdeo Narain Yadav, Sanjay Paswan and Digvijay Singh.
With Mr Yadav’s win in Chapra, the tally of the secular alliance, comprising the RJD, Congress and Lok Janshakti Party, shot up to 29 in Bihar. —
PTI
