Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday said he was in touch with senior Janata Dal(U) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav for the formation of a “formidable anti-BJP front”.

“Sharadji has always fought against the BJP and the RSS. He is pro-poor and pro-minorities. He is coming to Patna on August 8 and I will discuss with him the next course of action to form a formidable anti-BJP front in the country,” Mr. Prasad told presspersons in Ranchi, where he appeared in a special CBI court in connection with a fodder scam case.

He said the BJP, despite joining hands with Nitish Kumar led-JD(U), would not come to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and in Bihar after the Assembly elections in 2020.

Taking a dig at Nitish Kumar, he wondered how the Bihar Chief Minister would work with his new Ministers as “76% of them are tainted [as stated in an Association of Democratic Reforms report]”.

“What will he [Mr. Kumar] now say on zero tolerance for corruption,” Mr. Prasad asked. He said his younger son and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav would launch a State-wide tour from August 9 to “expose Nitish Kumar’s betrayal of the people’s mandate and also appeal to the people of Bihar for their support to the BJP Bhagao, desh bachao [throw out the BJP, save the country]mega rally in Patna on August 27”.

‘On PM’s orders’

On the income tax raids on a resort in Bengaluru where Congress had put up its MLAs in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in that State and at the residence of a Karnataka Minister, Mr. Prasad said they were “carried out on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

“The Centre has imposed an undeclared emergency,” he said. “The situation in the country is frightening.”