Ram-Shyam Holi bonhomie at JD(U) leader’s place causes uneasiness in RJD circle
Patna,(BiharTimes): When they were in RJD they were considered as bosom friends. Media used to call them Ram and Shyam of Bihar politics. Later the relationship turned sour though they were within the party.
Shyam Rajak went over to join JD(U) a month after May 2009 Lok Sabha poll debacle of RJD. He himself lost from his seat.
Ram Kripal Yadav remained as Lalu Prasad’s Hanuman till March 2014. He crossed over to the BJP, got ticket and defeated RJD supremo’s daughter Misa Bharati from Patliputra Lok Sabha seat.
But by then JD(U) had snapped its relationship with the BJP. So there was little scope of reunion of old friends.
However, on Holi day this year Ram Kripal–– now a Union minister in the cabinet of Narendra Modi, the leader whom he had abused many times in the past––along with Shyam Rajak, went to the house of Janata Dal (United) spokesman, Sanjay Singh. Though the latter downplayed the political angle and said it was just a Holi get-together there is no dearth of media pundits, who started giving this development a different colour.
As the trio met only a couple of days after RJD’s disgruntled vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s accusation that chief minister Nitish Kumar helped BJP win election in UP by not putting up JD(U) candidates the meeting is bound to raise eyebrows.
Like in the past Sanjay Singh had demanded the expulsion of Raghuvansh from the RJD and added that the latter was suffering from mental problem. However, the JD(U) leader said that the Grand Allaince is intact.
But Raghuvansh hit back at Sanjay, stressing it was at the chief minister’s behest that the spokesperson was abusing him.
Though Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad have always shown signs of cordiality there are many leaders in both the major parties of Grand Alliance who love to exchange verbal blows.
For example, commenting on the Monday’s development RJD’s bigmouthed MLA from Maner, Bhai Birendra, said there is definitely something cooking between the JD(U) and BJP. He also reminded the JD(U) that it should not be forgotten that RJD, with 80 MLAs, is the biggest party of the Grand Alliance.
Political observers are divided on these recent developments. A strong section of them feel that as Raghuvansh and Bhai Birendra had got no post they keep issuing statements. RJD is in a bind as it can not sack them because they are senior leaders.
If Raghuvansh is former Union minister Birendra is an MLA from Maner, which falls in Patliputra parliamentary constituency from where Misa contested last time and still hopes to do in 2019. Thus both these leaders know their importance.
Some other commentators are of the view that serious differencews have cropped up between both the parties. They recall BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi’s statement thanking Nitish for helping his party win in UP by not putting up JD(U) candidates.
The truth, however, is that Nitish was not in position to put up candidates of his party in UP. He had seen how humiliating defeat JD(U) suffered in 2012 when he was at his peak of popularity in Bihar and that too when he supported Apna Dal, the party of Kurmis in that state.
“Not to speak of UP, even in Jharkhand, where JD(U) once used to have five MLAs, the party does not exist though there was strong social base in its favour,” said a Bihar watcher adding that Ram Kripal is just a small fry in the BJP.
