Amid mounting pressure to quit, Tejashwi holds on to blessings of Raghopur villagers
It’s a lifeand-death moment for many faced with the deluge. Yet, at a roadside tea stall in Diwantok of the constituency that elected the state’s embattled deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, the conversation centres around whether the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad will survive the political crisis engulfing him.
For the past few days, the survival of the Grand Alliance of Bihar, of which RJD is a partner, has been the subject of intense debate with fresh allegations of graft hurled at family members of Prasad.
It has prompted the JD(U) of chief minister Nitish Kumar to issue an ultimatum to Tejashwi to come clean on the allegations or quit as the deputy CM, casting serious doubts about the future of the coalition government.
The heat is on Tejashwi, but back at the tea stall in Raghopur, there is no dearth of support for him. “Kahey dega istifa Tejashwi babu? Inkey kahney sey (Why should Tejashwi resign just because some want it)?” asks Mohan Kumar Yadav, 25, a cattle grazer. “It he resigns, it has to be his own decision. Not because someone wants it,” he adds.
Locals crowding around him while sipping hot tea agree. “Jio Lalu ke lal, kar dey tu kamal (Long live Lalu’s son, go and do us proud),” Nirajaa Yadav says, adding: “Lalu may be wrong, what has his son to do with it?”
Raghopur has been a stronghold of the Prasads for a long time. Barring 2010, when Prasad’s wife and ex-chief minister Rabri Devi lost, the constituency’s support for the family has been rock solid since 1995.
Pointing to the new BidupurKacchi Dargah road, Raj Kumar, a cultivator, explains why the Prasad scion is popular. “This road is our path to civilisation, a direct connect between Patna and Vaishali,” he says. “Tejashwi Yadav should not be targeted. His father may be involved, but he is incorruptible. I believe his emergence as a leader of worth and potential is worrying his rivals and that’s why he is being targeted.”
Housewife Sumitra Devi, 45, begs to differ. “If Tejashwi is clean, did he ever object to his father’s deeds?” she asks. “In any case, sons reaps what their fathers sow. If he wishes to justify his father, he must be ready for the consequences,” she says.
“Chup Raho (keep quiet),” others shout to quickly silence her. Voices in Raghopur against Tejashwi and his father get drowned by those in support. “He (Tejashwi) is a humble man who came and sat with us. We have blessed him,” said Rumia Devi, an elderly dalit. “Ganga Ma will save him from evil.”