The Bihar government, led by Nitish Kumar, has decided to remove a chapter about his friend-turned political-rival and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav from school textbooks..

"There will be no chapter on Lalu in school textbooks in Bihar," a senior official told rediff.com in Patna on Tuesday.

Sources said that the chapter on Lalu, titled Mitti ke Gaurav (pride of the soil), will be removed from the Hindi textbooks for class VIII from the academic session beginning in April.

Instead of a chapter dedicated to Lalu, students will now read about the life and work of Mahatma Phule, a social reformer and educationist of the 19th century.

"Lalu has been replaced by Mahatma Phule, who is regarded as non controversial," said an official from the State Council of Educational Research and Training.

"The textbook with the new chapter on Mahatma Phule will hit the markets in March," said the sources.

Soon after coming to power in November 2005, the Nitish Kumar government had announced its plans to remove the chapter from school textbooks. However, the move has not been implemented till now for various reasons.

In 1993, the chapter on Lalu, who was then the state chief minister, was included in the textbook following the recommendations of an editorial board of the Bihar State Text Book Corporation.

The students of Class VIII have been studying about Lalu Prasad Yadav, along with two former state chief ministers, Bhola Paswan Shastri and Karpuri Thakur.