By Arun Srivastava
The framing of corruption charges by the Delhi High Court against the three members of Lalu Yadav Family, Lalu, Rabri Devi and their son Tejashvi on the eve of the crucial assembly elections in Bihar, has stunned even the detractors of their party RJD as Tejashvi is the chief minister face of the INDIA Bloc and he is the main campaigner of the Mahagathbandhan. The irony is that Tejashvi was only 15 years old when the alleged scam took place. He was a student then.
The charges against him enjoins upon the voters, the people of Bihar, to believe that Tejashvi who was an adolescent when the irregularities in the award of the operational contracts for two IRCTC hotels to a private firm took place, was one of the prime accused.
Judicial system even did not have second thought of what kind of message it was reaching to the people. Already it is said that it is the part of the greater conspiracy designed by the ruling BJP to restrain him from electoral campaigning.
Decision of Special Judge Vishal Gogne to list the examination of the prosecution witnesses for October 27, just ten days ahead of the polling on November 6, has added to the controversy.. The RJD people look at this as a deep-rooted conspiracy of the ruling BJP to ensure that Tejashvi, the prime campaigner get entangled in legal battle and denied of time to campaign. The court observed that there was a “prima facie” case against the accused and pointed to “grave suspicion” relating to the land transfers. It described Lalu as “seemingly the fountainhead” of the conspiracy.
Tejashwi, the leader of the Opposition in Bihar, described this as an act of political victimisation and announced his resolve to fight the BJP: “A month ago, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji came to Bihar, he was threatening us that he wouldn’t leave us in a condition to contest elections. I will fight and I will win. We are Biharis, true Biharis.… We do not fear outsiders. Jai Bihar, Jai Bihari”.
If this action of Amit Shah has angered the INDIA rank and file, his design to allot seats to the NDA allies, especially to JD(U), has infuriated its chief Nitish Kumar. Though Nitish refrained from airing his anger in public, the sources say that he is very angry with BJP at the seat allocation. What has exasperated Nitish more is the plan of Amit Shah to project Chirag Paswan as a challenger to Nitish and giving him more seats at the cost of JD(U).
What has shocked Nitish is Amit Shah not taking him in confidence. The BJP leaders say that Amit Shah who is to arrive on October 16 on a three-day tour would formally announce the names of the candidates. According to the seat-sharing formula, BJP and JD(U) will contest 101 each. This decision virtually relegated Nitish and snatched his status of BIG Brother. Chirag, the bete noire of Nitish has been awarded for his loyalty to Amit Shah in 2025 election, by handing over 29 seats. Incidentally LJP has not a single member in the outgoing assembly. Rashtriya Lok Morcha, led by Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (of Jitan Ram Manjhi) have each been allotted six seats.
Nitish Kumar wants the JD(U) to contest in its traditional strongholds, but the BJP has allocated most of such seats to Chirag. JD(U) sources confide that Nitish is angry with his two lieutenants Union minister Lalan Singh and working president Sanjay Jha, for allowing the party to be hijacked by Amit Shah and run his writ. Significantly, some of the BJP leaders who are quite close to Nitish have been denied ticket by Shah.
The intensity of differences is not so acute in the INDIA bloc, as it is in NDA. But the allies are cut up at the manner in which Lalu Yadav has been trying to dictate. The situation has come to such a stage that some allies, especially the CPI(ML) has announced the names of some of its candidates and also the seats from where they would contest. CPI(ML)-L general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “Photographs are viral on social media of our candidates getting the party symbol. This should not be taken as some sort of defiance of the collective INDIA bloc leadership. We are allotting symbols to our sitting MLAs, about whom there is no dispute with alliance partners”.
CPI(ML) will also field former AISA leader Divya Gautam. Dipankar said, “She is tipped to be our candidate for Digha seat which we had contested in 2020 polls as well. The then candidate Shashi Yadav is now an MLC. In any case, we are hopeful that sharing of seats for the entire coalition will be finalised by tomorrow. And in the next few days, we will complete the nomination process”. CPI(M), which has two MLAs in the current assembly, had announced that both its MLAs, Ajay Kumar and Satyendra Yadav, would be its candidates this time also.
With getting caught in the IRCTC case, Tejashvi could not discuss the issue with his allies. He is yet to finalise and announce his own RJD candidates, even as aspirants continued to queue up outside the house of Lalu Yadav. Sources maintain that Lalu has managed to sort out the differences with the Congress, the second largest alliance partner, during his stay in Delhi in the matter of IRCTC case.
Nevertheless the Jan Suraaj Party headed by Prashant Kishor has been in the news more for its contentious and, conflicting role. Prashant has himself confessed that it would either win ten seats or score more than 150 seats. Known for his hyperboles, Prashant has created panic in the NDA and INDIA camp. Projecting himself as a crusader against corruption, he is trying to catch the imagination of the common people, who have been feeling exploited and cheated by the traditional political parties and their leadership.
Conjecture of Kishor contesting against Tejashwi Yadav from Yadav stronghold Raghopur has added to his charisma. This has made a section of the people believe what he says. But the pattern of his allotting seats has turned the people sceptical of his real intentions. Though a party mainly consisting of upper caste leaders, Prashant has been nominating significant number of Dalit, OBS, EBC and Muslim candidates.
Out of 65 seats for which candidates were announced by October 13,24 belong to backward communities — 14 from Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and 10 from Other Backward Classes (OBC) — constituting about 37% of the list. Additionally, 14 Muslim candidates (21%) have been fielded, alongside 11 upper-caste and one Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate. Combined with the first list, 52 of the 116 Jan Suraaj candidates belong to EBC and OBC categories, making up 45% of the total.
Supreme Court refusing to entertain plea seeking SIT probe into Rahul Gandhi’s Voters’ List fraud has surprised the common people. Court unnecessarily dragging the SIR case and allowing the ECI to have enough space for endeavouring the case in its favour has already been an issue of acute heated discussion. The latest refusal to entertain the case against ECI has further turned the people sceptical of the final electoral outcome. (IPA Service)
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