PATNA: RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad's fifth conviction in as many fodder scam cases against him signals the final passing of the baton to his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, for whom becoming the party's national president is possibly the only formality that remains to be completed.
While the jury is out on whether 74-year-old Lalu has been anything beyond a figurehead for RJD in the past few years, the man himself is known to scoff at speculation about his heir apparent, Tejashwi, taking over the reins anytime soon.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s residence in Patna wears a deserted look
On Tuesday, after a special CBI court in Ranchi held him and 74 others guilty of embezzling Rs 139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the ailing politician whose carefully cultivated 1990s image as a "messiah of the poor" won RJD several elections.
BJP and JD(U) still consider Lalu Prasad as a heavyweight opponent worthy of their scorn, but indications are that Tejashwi will be anointed RJD president at the party's national council meeting this October. In any case, Tejashwi has been calling the shots in the party as well as the opposition camp since CM Nitish Kumar dumped the RJD-Congress combine to form a government with BJP in 2017.
"Tejashwi has to be the RJD national president sooner or later. Laluji’s conviction will have no impact on RJD. Tejashwi proved his political mettle in the last Bihar elections in the absence of his father. He is leading the party for all practical purposes. He is the leader of opposition and has won the hearts of RJD functionaries as well as workers," RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari told TOI.
It is believed that Lalu postponed handing over the party presidentship to Tejashwi because he either did not want to meet the fate of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who made his son Akhilesh Prasad Yadav the Samajwadi Party chief in Uttar Pradesh and quickly became politically irrelevant, or avoid a rebellion by his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav.
Tiwari ruled out any family dispute. "Tej Pratap has always blessed his younger brother and never raised questions about Tejashwi’s leadership," he said.
As far as the other Mahagathbandhan partners are concerned, the Left parties feel another fodder scam conviction for Lalu would have little impact on the opposition’s strength.
CPI-M central committee member Arun Mishra praised Tejashwi for setting the agenda of the 2020 assembly polls on issues like unemployment, health and education. "Lalu has spent a long time in jail. The opposition, under Tejashwi, did extremely well, to the extent of missing forming a government by a whisker in 2020. It bodes well for state politics. Lalu is still a force but Tejashwi has proved his leadership skills."
CPI secretariat member Awadhesh Kumar said, "Lalu’s absence or presence on the political scene of Bihar hardly matters. The opposition has been strengthened and the political equations under Tejashwi are better now."
Though Tejashwi dumped Congress as the alliance partner in Bihar, Bhagalpur MLA and Congress legislature party leader in the state assembly, Ajit Sharma, claimed Tejashwi was no match for Lalu. "He (Lalu) has done a lot for the poor, and his absence will be a loss for the opposition. We are sad. Congress needs him in the fight against BJP," he told TOI.
“Only time will tell what kind of impact his absence will have on NDA or us,” Congress state president Madan Mohan Jha said.
