New Delhi:
In an attempt to woo its traditional vote bank including the minority community and people belonging to backward and most backward castes, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday promised reservation to the backward classes on the basis of their population as Tejashwi Yadav released the party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. The manifesto also mentioned reservation in promotion and promises to fill all vacant government posts. The RJD leader also vowed reservations in private jobs.
While releasing the manifesto, Tejashwi Yadav said that the party will take major steps to stop migration. Yadav also said that he supported the Congress party's NYAY yojana which was mentioned in the Grand Old Party's election manifesto released last week.
In 2014, the party manifesto was released by RJD chief Lalu Prasad. The manifesto had promised to end the contractual system of employment in the state and regularise teachers, anganwadi sevikas, assistants, computer operators, drivers, engineers, doctors, home guards and others working on contract. Foremost among its poll promises, RJD had said it will provide reservation to the minority community in jobs and educational opportunities in government and semi-government institutions.
Lalu Prasad is now lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in the Jharkhand capital of Ranchi. He has challenged the January 10 verdict of the Jharkhand High Court dismissing his bail plea.
The three cases in which Prasad has been convicted are related to the over-Rs 900-crore fodder scam, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasuries in the Animal Husbandry department in the early 1990s, when Jharkhand was part of Bihar.
The RJD was in power in Bihar with Prasad as the chief minister when the scam had allegedly taken place.
