Daughter's love forces Lalu to accommodate criminal

"Lalu, in a closed door meeting for over an hour, urged Yadav's father to convince his son not to contest and instead, support Bharti," the party leader said. Lalu later again paid a visit.

"Ritlal agreed not to contest after Lalu assured tickets to him and his wife for the 2015 assembly poll," the leader said.

Yadav may be a notorious criminal but villagers, particularly those of his caste, consider him "Robinhood".

In the 2010 assembly election when RJD denied him a ticket, he got over 50,000 votes that threw a spanner in the chances of the party candidate.