PATNA: The CBI raids at 16 places, including the residence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi in Patna, on Friday were ostensibly to find evidence in the alleged land-for-job in the railways scam, but it seemingly has left more of unseen political fallouts than anything else.
When the CBI raided Rabri’s residence, Tejashwi, the political inheritor of his father, was in London to deliver a lecture on the situation facing the opposition in the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre. Lalu is in Delhi and facing the fresh CBI heat.
As observers feel, the suspense over the likely formation of JD(U) and RJD government in the state is headed for final resolution, which has left the BJP in no enviable position. The suspense has been building up since April 22 – a day before the visit of Union home minister Amit Shah to Jagdishpur (Ara) – when CM Nitish Kumar, on invitation, attended the iftar party hosted by Lalu’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
Although it is believed that the BJP central leadership, through the CBI raids, has given an oblique message to Nitish that he should not cross the Rubicon to be with RJD and dismantle the present NDA government.
RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary said the CBI had been unleashed to give a “message” to Nitish that his growing proximity with Tejashwi was not to the liking of the BJP’s top brass.
In fact, when the CBI raids were on, Nitish convened an emergency meeting of JD(U) ministers and MLAs to assess their opinion in the fluid situation. They reposed full faith in his leadership and also authorized him to take all decisions. While nothing has been explained by the JD(U) as to what actually was on the mind of Nitish, the grapevine said there could be two main reasons of convening the meeting. The first one was to authorise Nitish to take a call on renominating Union minister RCP Singh to the Rajya Sabha or simply deny him that opportunity as he is perceived to be closer to the BJP and, by extension, could be used by its top brass to unsettle Nitish and weaken the JD(U) by splitting its parliamentary party or even the legislature party in the state.
The second reason could be that Nitish would now be free to sever ties with the BJP and form a government with RJD.
Friday’s developments have left the state BJP stunned, since the circumstances appear to have moved too far, rather outside its control. For, a BJP camp thinks that it should have upper hand and that the “BJP man” should be at the helm of affairs in the state, replacing Nitish. As to the other camp, void stares at it, as in its opinion, “Nitish is the JD(U) leader and face, and no MLA or MP will desert him. Bureaucrat RCP Singh cannot do much.”
One state BJP leader said: “We need Nitish on our side in view of the 2024 parliamentary elections, because he has his support base still intact. But the CBI raids have changed everything. Now we don’t know what will happen next. The fact is that anything can happen.”
