JAILHOUSE PUDDING
Lalu’s legal woes continue, but an apparent overture from a potential ally gives hope to the RJD
Trouble is mounting for Lalu Prasad Yadav. On August 24, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet against the RJD chief, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in a money-laundering case pertaining to his tenure as Union railway minister in UPA-I. In a separate development, the Jharkhand High Court refused to extend the provisional bail granted to Lalu on medical grounds, and directed him to surrender by August 30.
But then there was a spot of cheer. Union minister Upendra Kushwaha dropped broad hints of possibly teaming up with the RJD. At the birth centenary celebrations of the late B.P. Mandal (of the Mandal Commission fame) in Patna on August 25, Kushwaha suggested that a combination of rice from the Kushwaha community and milk from the Yadavs would produce a “perfect kheer”. The minister, who heads the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), has been increasingly uneasy within the BJP-led NDA.
That evening, arriving at Patna airport from Mumbai, Lalu didn’t speak to reporters, saying it wasn’t “permitted”, but there was noticeable vigour within the RJD, with Tejashwi welcoming the RLSP chief’s overtures. Comprising close to five per cent of Bihar’s electorate, the Kushwahas are the biggest OBC caste block after the Yadavs. Contesting Lok Sabha 2014 in alliance with the BJP, the RLSP romped home in all the three seats it fought. Uneasy after Nitish Kumar rejoined the NDA, Kushwaha fears his party won’t be given its rightful share of seats in the 2019 general elections.
The RJD has long been trying to wean him away from the NDA. Lalu and his sons hope to win Kushwaha over by offering the RLSP more seats than the NDA can possibly give it. And it won’t be difficult, with Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) no longer part of the mahagathbandhan.
With the Lok Sabha polls less than a year away, the tie-up could be critical for the anti-BJP camp, particularly with Lalu being forced to sit it out, possibly in jail, following his recent convictions in a number of fodder scam cases. A senior RJD leader admits ruefully that Lalu’s absence could prove “demoralising” for the RJD rank and file.
Interestingly, many of his diehard supporters are hoping that the jail stint will help Lalu bounce back with greater strength than before. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 1977 following a period of incarceration during the Emergency. He also had some big wins after the first fodder scam incarceration in 1997.
However, this time it could all be very different. Besides the fodder scam convictions and the ED noose tightening around Tejashwi in addition to Rabri and himself, the party could well be confronting what is an impossible challenge.
Their mounting legal problems have left the RJD’s first family with very little elbow room. Upendra Kushwaha’s ‘rice pudding’ could make things a bit easier.
A tie-up with Kushwaha’s RLSP could be critical for the anti-BJP camp in 2019, particularly since Lalu may still find himself in jail