Raghubar blames ‘Jaichand’ for defeat

Outgoing Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das on Wednesday alleged that he was defeated due to the conspiracy hatched by a ‘Jaichand’ in the party. He was obviously referring to his cabinet colleague Saryu Rai, who defeated him in his traditional East Jamshedpur constituency. Historically, king of Varanasi Jaichand is said to have conspired with invader Mohammed Ghouri to defeat king of Delhi Prithviraj Chauhan.

Reacting to the statement of his predecessor, incoming Chief Minister Hemant Soren said, “It is too early for Raghubar Das to come to a conclusion. He should think about it in retrospect.”

Rai, on the other hand, said that he was constantly targetted by Das and he was being spied upon by his trusted officials. They used to record my statements in Raj Bhawan or even at Deoghar temple. “The chief minister decided the reason for his defeat within 24 hours,” he said.

Rai alleged that Das used to terrorise the ministers and MLAs and that he used to take all the decisions in the Cabinet himself and ministers were asked to approve of them.

The rebel BJP leader said he had stopped attending Cabinet meetings since February this year as the ministers were silenced by the chief minister. Rai had quit as parliamentary affairs minister.

Rai admitted that RJD president Lalu Prasad and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar helped him during the elections. The Yadav voters of Jamshedpur ignored the advice of the PWD Minister of Bihar Nand Kishore Yadav, who was sent by the chief minister to campaign against him. Rai, Lalu and Nitish were in the JP-led movement together.

He claimed 70 per cent of the BJP workers in his constituency worked for him. Rai said he would remain an independent both inside and outside the assembly. He would work as a whistle blower in Jharkhand as he did in the past and would expose corruption and irregularities, he said.