Lalu's aide Shyam Razak quits, may join JD-U

In a setback to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, his close confidant and national general secretary Shyam Razak today resigned from the Bihar Assembly.

He is likely to join the ruling JD(U) in a day or two in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other senior party leaders here, a JD(U) spokesman claimed.

Razak submitted his resignation letter to secretary of the state assembly Surendra Prasad Sharma, who faxed it to Speaker Udai Narain Choudhary, currently in New Delhi.

The Speaker has accepted Razak's resignation, Sharma said adding that now onwards, he ceases to be a member of the House.

Razak, considered very close to the former Railway minister, was a three-time member of the state assembly since 1995 and remained a minister for nearly nine years in the Lalu-Rabri government.