Lalu Prasad Yadav’s weakness for family continues to take its toll, yet he has learnt little. Upset over the denial of ticket one of the senior leaders of the the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ram Kripal Yadav, on Saturday quit from all the party posts.
The resignation came after two days of drama in Patna as well as Delhi, where Lalu’s daughter and candidate for Patliputra seat, Misa Bharati, rushed to mollify him by offering to leave the seat for Chacha Ram Kripal.
By Friday night it appeared that the party has managed to overcome yet another crisis within 10 days with Ram Kripal accepting the offer. But on Saturday morning things took another turn with Ram Kripal quoting Lalu’s statement that “horses are not changed in the mid-stream.” He also attributed Misa’s action to emotional torture and ‘nautanki’.
Though the party managed to overcome the Feb 24 ‘revolt’ by 13 MLAs–nine of them returned to the party fold–things seem to be going out of control this time with leaders like Ram Badan Rai and Ghulam Ghouse also raising the banner of revolt over the denial of ticket to them.
Though all the parties in Bihar are facing similar revolt like situation what is different in the RJD is the growing role of the Lalu family. The allotment of party tickets to both wife Rabri Devi from Saran and Misa from Patliputra, not only reflects Lalu’s desire to promote his family, but at the same time gives an idea of his growing sense of insecurity. The more he is in trouble, the more he relies of the family and not his old political friends, who have stood by him through thick and thin. The denial of ticket to the most trusted man like Ram Kripal is a case in point.
To be fair to Lalu, he did not promote his wife or any other close relatives in early years as the chief minister. But it all started after the unearthing of fodder scam in January 1996, just days after he became the national president of the then erstwhile Janata Dal. He was also the chief minister of Bihar then.
That was the first time that his two brother-in-laws––Sadhu and Subhash—started playing some role in politics. However, it was actually after he was forced to resign and went to jail in July 1997 that Lalu made Rabri Devi, a housewife with no political experience whatsoever, as the chief minister of the state. He did not trust any leader, even anyone from his own caste.
With Lalu in and out of jail, the ‘salas’ started playing more important role. Thanks to ‘jeejaji’, the two became legislator and later MP. But with their rise started the decline in the fate of the party.
If RJD is today in such a state, the two brothers have their share of contribution. Yet it was Sadhu who first on the eve of 2009 Lok Sabha election deserted RJD to join the Congress. He even unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election that year.
Subhash’s Rajya Sabha term ended in 2012.
A few months back Sadhu went to the extent of meeting Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad and was eager to get the BJP ticket.
As if the rise and decline of brother-in-laws was not enough, of late, especially after his conviction Lalu started relying more on his two sons. Though the elder one, Tej Pratap, is not too eager to join politics, the younger one, Tejaswai, is less than 25 years of age and can not contest the election.
As after conviction he himself can not contest, Lalu decided to field both wife and daughter from the two seats he had contested last time. Since he lost from Pataliputra last time he had put up his daughter. What he fears is that if he just put up Rabri Devi and she loses, than none in the family would become the Member of Parliament and thus the family would lose its foothold in Delhi. So to avoid the risk he fielded both, but the move backfired as many party leaders resented it.
What the party rank and file fears is that Lalu has nine children and more than one may enter into politics. So it would be difficult for them to leave space for a few more in the years to come.
Lalu is neither Mulayam Singh nor Ram Vilas Paswan, who can afford to promote their families. He is fighting a very difficult legal battle and has already been convicted by the CBI court. The second rung leaders are naturally seeing little future in the party.
The bottom line is that he cannot fight the Sangh Parivar––which he never spares in his criticism––just with his own parivar.
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