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STATES:
BIHAR
Beyond
Caste Into Greed
The rumblings
for a change of leadership within the RJD have intensified after reallocation
of portfolios angered some MLAs
By
Sanjay Kumar Jha
There's
one more feud brewing in Bihar. Hardly news in a state long used to caste
wars and anarchy. Except that the parties facing off this time round are
old friends; one the founder of the rjd, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and the other
currently its Working President Ranjan Prasad Yadav. The outcome of this
clash might decide who will be the next chief minister of Bihar.
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| Rajan
Yadav is the rallying point for opponents of Laloo |
It was the
reallocation of portfolios in the Rabri Devi Government (following the
creation of Jharkhand state) that sparked the fuse. Minister of state
for higher education Ram Das Rai, enraged at not being elevated to cabinet
rank, stormed into 1 Anne Marg, the chief minister's official residence,
to protest the allocation of cabinet rank in the ministry to Ram Lakhan
Ram Raman who is a defector from the CPI. Rai was told by Laloo that nothing
could be done in the matter. When he threatened to resign, Laloo taunted
him saying, "Achhe se likhiyega (write your resignation letter well)."
Rai wrote a resignation and stormed out. Shortly after, he demanded the
removal of the chief minister and installation of Ranjan Yadav, who is
a Rajya Sabha member, to the post. He also demanded that a meeting of
the RJD Legislature Party be convened soon to elect Ranjan as its leader.
Rai claimed that more than 50 party MLAs and ministers were against the
present dispensation and threatened to soon launch a campaign within the
party to oust Rabri.
 The
oust-Rabri-Laloo campaign within the ruling RJD gained further momentum
when Building Construction Minister Mohammad Taslimuddin joined the rebels'
bandwagon. He apprehended that "the situation might lead to a split
in the party if a meeting of the legislature party is not convened soon
to elect Ranjan as the leader". But rejecting the rebels' demand
for holding a legislature party meeting to elect a new leader, the RJD
Secretary General Ram Kripal Yadav claimed that "there is no substance
in the dissidents' demand. Besides, the RJD Legislature Party had met
recently and all MLAs showed faith in Rabri's leadership."
They could
be showing something entirely different soon. The game is afoot, and numbers
are being toted up to see if Rabri can be toppled. Ram Vilas Paswan's
Lok Janashakti Party, which has six MLAs, has already expressed support
for Ranjan Prasad, who needs 122 MLAs to become chief minister. At the
moment Ranjan's supporters are trying to persuade JD(U), Samata and independent
MLAs to support him. With their support the number comes to 112 (including
Samata, 12, JD(U), 12 and Independents, 15). However, both Samata and
JD(U) are silent for the moment. They have said that the Ranjan-Laloo
fight is the RJD's internal matter and have blamed Laloo's "inefficiency"
for it.
Meanwhile,
Ranjan, who has emerged as the rallying point for dissidents, had to face
the wrath of Laloo's supporters at Jaynagar in Madhubani district of north
Bihar recently. They pelted stones and shoes and threw chairs at Ranjan's
supporters during a seminar on the development of Bihar.
The ruckus
came under control only when Ranjan announced that there were no "differences"
between him and Laloo. He reportedly said, "We are together. Nobody
can dare to frustrate our friendship." The incident further fuelled
the fire. Ranjan may have said what he had to, but he can't have enjoyed
being forced into such a situation. Sources said that when he reached
Darbhanga after the Jaynagar incident Laloo tried his best to get in touch
with him, but to no avail. Ranjan's associates say that more legislators
turned up to extend their moral support after the incident.
This is
not the first time the RJD has had to tackle internal differences. In
the past 10 years dissidence against Laloo has failed on several occasions.
One of the main problems has been the lack of an alternative leadership.
Not very long ago about a dozen RJD MLAs had called Laloo "mentally
bankrupt" and alleged he was deliberately trying to implicate party
legislators and ministers in cases of corruption to keep them in his hold.
Some of them, including Rakesh Kumar alias Samrat Chaudhary, son of Shakuni
Chaudhary, and Ramdeo Yadav, were forthright in commenting against Laloo's
"arbitrary style of functioning." Not much happened thereafter.
However,
the rumblings indicate that this may be a more serious upheaval in the
RJD than any in the past. An intelligence report leaked to the media said
a group of 45 MLAs had vouched support to Ranjan. The report said that
all these MLAs were ready to support Ranjan after Laloo and Rabri were
convicted in the disproportionate-assets case.
Battle lines
are now being drawn, with supporters ranged on both sides. The hard talk
has begun. "In the RJD there is only one leader and that is Lalooji,"
says Health Minister Shakuni Chaudhary. Another MLA alleges that Ranjan
has the support of a mere half a dozen legislators. Which way the MLAs
themselves will go in the end is obviously a matter of conjecture yet.
Ranjan himself
has begun to speak out against his one-time friend. "Bihar can no
alonger be handled through histrionics and dramatics," he declared
recently. The man who calls himself a khanti (pure) Yadav has also said,
"Laloo is not my leader." Now he has to prove that he has it
in him to be his own leader.
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METRO TODAY
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Today Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 