Patna, Oct 6 (IANS): In a bid to counter Lalu Prasad, the NDA has put forward Jitan Ram Manjhi, the president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Mukesh Sahani, president of the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP), to attack Lalu Prasad and his family during the upcoming by-elections in the state.

The voting for the two seats of Kusheshwar Sthan and Tarapur is to be held on October 30 and the results will be out on November 2.

For the NDA, the JDU has fielded two candidates who will face the heat from the RJD. Bihar assembly election 2020 was contested without Lalu Prasad as he was serving a jail term in the fodder scam. Now in the by-election, he is out on bail and the RJD has announced his entry into the election campaign with a bang for these two seats.

As Lalu Prasad is a popular leader of Bihar especially among backward classes, Muslims, Yadavs and other most backward castes, it would be a tough challenge for the NDA to emerge victorious. Now, it has put Manjhi and Sahani forward to counter Lalu Prasad.

Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former chief minister of Bihar said: "When you were undeclared chief minister of Bihar during Rabri Devi government, I requested you to give respect to mountain man Dasrath Manjhi. You had given an unfortunate reply and said that a person belonging to the Mushar caste cannot sit on the chair."

"It is due to the fear of Jitan (Jitan Ram Manjhi), you have given respect to a person of Mushar caste in this by-election," Manjhi said referring to the RJD ticket given to Ganesh Bharti who belongs to the same caste to contest from Kusheshwar Sthan (SC) in Darbhanga.

Mukesh Sahani also attacked Lalu Prasad and his family. He said that Tejashwi Yadav stabbed him in the back just before the assembly elections of 2020.

"When Lalu Prasad was in jail, he had contacted me on phone and asked me to join the Mahagathbandhan," Sahani said.