IANS/Patna
Jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi - both former Bihar chief ministers - will jointly lead the party, it was announced yesterday.
Rabri Devi, who earlier said her husband would continue to be the RJD leader, also declared she would not contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Saran constituency, represented by Yadav.
“It was unanimously decided by RJD leaders and workers gathered here that Lalu Prasad would continue to lead the RJD from prison and Rabri Devi from outside. Now Lalu-Rabri together would lead the party,” party general secretary Ram Kripal Yadav told reporters here after a meeting of the RJD at 10 Circular road, Rabri Devi’s official residence.
Yadav, for years one of India’s most charismatic politicians, was last week sentenced to five years in jail for pilfering the state treasury in the fodder scam, effectively derailing his political career.
The RJD also announced that Yadav would continue to be national president of the party.
The meeting was attended by senior party leaders, legislators and MPs and discussed the strategy to run the party while Yadav is behind bars. It was the first party meeting following his sentencing by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ranchi last week.
“In the meeting, Lalu Prasad’s message from jail was read out before party leaders and workers. He urged the party leaders and workers to fight against communal forces and communalism,” said state RJD president Ramchandra Purve.
Speaking to reporters here earlier, Rabri Devi said: “I will not contest elections either from Saran or any other seat.”
Yadav was disqualified as an MP after being convicted and jailed. He won his Lok Sabha seat from Saran in 2004 and 2009.
Rabri Devi added that their daughter Misa Bharti too would not contest from Patna.
The RJD chief is currently lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi.
Rabri Devi earlier alleged that her husband was a victim of a “conspiracy” and blamed both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his plight.
The jail sentence marked, for all practical purposes, the derailment of a man who catapulted from Patna’s student politics of the 1970s to MP, and then the chief minister of Bihar, where he created waves by arresting then BJP star L K Advani amid the Ayodhya tumult in 1990.
Over the years, Yadav became a household name both for his politics and theatrics. He played a key role in the formation of the first Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2004.
He was Bihar’s chief minister when the CBI filed a charge sheet on June 23, 1997 accusing 56 people of fraudulently taking out Rs37 mn from the Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95 using forged and fabricated documents.
In other political developments, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren said seat-sharing with the Congress was yet to be finalised for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
“Leaders of the Congress and JMM will sit and decide over the seat-sharing issue,” Soren, a former chief minister, told reporters in Ranchi.
Over the Congress claim to 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats from Jharkhand, he said: “It is not decided who will fight on how many seats.”
Shibu Soren’s son Hemant became the chief minister of the state in July this year with the support of the Congress and other parties.
Congress spokesman Shailesh Sinha said “seat-sharing was finalised during the formation of the government in July. As per understanding, the Congress will fight for 10 seats from Jharkhand.”
Rabri Devi and Yadav: to jointly lead party.
