RANCHI, June 19 -- The political fault line between the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the two key allies of the INDIA bloc, is widening. On Friday, Lalu Prasad directly accused Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju of being responsible for Pranav Jha's defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, senior RJD leaders led by Bhola Yadav, RJD national general secretary and a close aide of the national president, described Raju as 'Bikau' (sold out). They also urged the Congress leadership to sack him from the party and asked Chief Minister Hemant Soren to remove the grand-old party from the government.

The strongly worded tirade against the Congress was in response to Raju's Thursday allegations tha...