Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad, who underwent a “successful” kidney transplant surgery in Singapore on Monday, is conscious and responding, from his hospital bed to greetings of near and dear ones, family members said.
Prasad went under the knife along with daughter Rohini Acharya, who donated one of her kidneys to her septuagenarian father.
“Ready to rock and roll. Wish me good luck,” Acharya had tweeted from the hospital, with pictures of herself and her father prior to the surgery.
Later, Prasad’s son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav shared a short video clip of him being taken out of the operation theatre.
“Papa has been shifted from the operation theatre to the ICU, after a successful kidney transplant. Both our national president and elder sister and donor Rohini Acharya are fine,” he tweeted.
“Sincere thanks to all of you for your prayers and good wishes,” added Yadav, who is by the side of his father along with mother Rabri Devi, an ex-CM, and eldest sister Misa Bharti, who is a Rajya Sabha member.
Bharti also posted a video of her recuperating father, raising a bandaged arm to wave at the camera, on her Twitter handle.
“It was a moment of big relief for us when we got a chance to meet papa in the ICU. He is waving at supporters in acknowledgement of their wishes and prayers,” she said.
Innumerable supporters in Bihar went into prayer mode earlier in the day, lining up outside temples and Sufi shrines, until Yadav came out with the good news on the micro-blogging site.
Special prayers were offered at the revered Chinnamastika temple in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh for the quick recovery of Prasad.
Political allies like M K Stalin and Hemant Soren, Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand respectively, also came out with tweets, wishing Prasad a speedy recovery.
The former Bihar CM, who is serving sentences in a number of fodder scam cases, has been granted bail by the court on medical grounds.