Bihar: RJD in a spot of bother as Lalu Prasad loyalists desert party

PATNA: Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s offer to resign from RJD on Thursday suggests that all is not well in the Lalu Prasad-led party at a time when the state assembly polls are round the corner.
Raghuvansh’s stand has sent shockwaves among the leaders and workers of the party. It has also given rise to rumours that Lalu’s loyalists, who once stood solidly behind him, are being sidelined in the party.
The list of Lalu’s loyalists deserting the party is long. Take the case of Uday Narain Rai alias Bhola Babu, who was a minister in the Lalu-Rabri government. Bhola had quit the Raghopur assembly constituency to pave way for Lalu to contest the assembly polls from the seat in 1995.
Bhola enjoyed a considerable influence in Raghopur from where Lalu’s younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav got elected for the first time in 2015 assembly polls. Bhola’s exit has made the task of Tejashwi all the more difficult.
Earlier, MAA Fatmi, former RJD MP from Darbhanga, had left the party and joined Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) after being denied ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Similarly, Ram Kripal Yadav, now BJP MP from Patliputra, left RJD in 2014 and joined BJP after Lalu’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti was declared an official candidate of RJD from the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency. Before leaving the RJD first family, Ram Kripal was described as ‘Hanuman’ of Lalu.
Neeraj Kumar, a senior JD(U) functionary, said, “For Laluji, family comes first. As a result, even those who were once loyal to him have deserted the party.”
Sources said even other stalwarts like Shivanand Tiwari, Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Ram Chandra Purbe are not being consulted in the affairs of the party on a regular basis. It is said that Jay Prakash Narain Yadav, a former Union minister, is also not in the good books of the state leadership of the party.
RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari, however, refuted the allegation of the party ignoring its veteran leaders. “It’s a fact that some senior leaders have quit the party on one pretext or another. But it’s also true that many of them, who were loyal to Laluji, returned to the party fold after sometime,” he said.
Shyam Rajak, Brishen Patel, Uday Narayan Chaudhary, Ramai Ram were a new names to be mentioned, the RJD spokesperson said, adding all those who were criticising Lalu have today got recognition in public life because of him (Lalu).
Altogether 13 MLAs and MLCs had left the RJD and joined the JD(U) recently. Many of them were Yadavs and Muslims, the core vote base of the RJD.