Law Kumar Mishra
Patna: While RJD president Lalu Prasad is maintaining silence over mid-night shifting of his party’s national executive committee member and former party MP Mohammad Shahabuddin from Siwan Jail to Bhagalpur central jail, his senior colleagues are attacking CM Nitish Kumar and one of them even sought resignation of CM over deteriorating law and order. The JD(U) has reacted sharply to it. “The limits have been crossed,” said Sanjay Singh, JD(U) spokesman .
Since Shahabuddin was sent to Bhagalpur, RJD vice-president Raghuwansh Prasad Singh, former union minister and party MP from Araria Mohammad Taslimuddin and former MP from Maharajganj Prabhunath Singh have voiced their concern over poor law and order in the state. Their statements came at 10, Circular Road residence of former CM Rabri Devi after a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board. There was no contradiction or clarification from 10, Circular Road.
When Sanjay Singh issued a statement on Saturday condemning the three leaders for “crossing the limits ” and asking Lalu to control his colleagues, Taslimuddin, who was a minister of state for home at the Centre in late 90s, reacted more strongly by saying “Let the alliance break. But it is for Lalu to decide. Law and order has collapsed and Nitish Kumar should be squarely blamed. He should resign.” The Araria MP went to the extent of alleging there was no good governance in the state.
Incidentally, the statements were being made outside the residence of the party president. Neither Lalu nor his sons-deputy chief minister Tejeshwi Yadav or Tej Pratap Yadav came to contradict their senior leaders.
Except for the party spokesman, no senior JD(U) leader has reacted to the statements of the three senior RJD leaders so far. However, one of the senior office-bearers of state JD(U) said they can’t react unless asked by the chief minister. “We will not provoke the RJD leaders further,” he said. He also said it was clear the three RJD leaders, who were close to Lalu, were issuing the anti-Nitish statements on the instructions of the RJD president who wanted to keep Nitish under his thumb, which is now not possible as Nitish too has grew larger than Lalu’s image at the national level. “It is Lalu’s compulsion to remain in the Grand Alliance not Nitish’s”, the party leader known for his staunch loyalty to chief minister said.