National parties out to crush regional ones: Lalu

Patna, November 5: In an apparent reference to Congress with which it failed to strike an understanding for assembly polls in Jharkhand, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has said national parties are out to "crush" smaller and regional outfits.

"National parties want relentlessly to crush smaller and regional parties. They want to virtually eat them up in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra," he said.

But, leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav of SP, Sharad Pawar of NCP and Mayawati of BSP, besides him, will not get marginalised by "such nefarious designs", Prasad said at the RJD national executive meeting here yesterday.

The RJD chief rued that the Centre listened to only those who commanded power and were with it. "You see whether it was Mahabharata, Mughal period or any other era, Delhi heard only the people with lathi (power)," he said.