Waiting for brothers' real Mahabharat

Political circles are tickled over reports that immediately after Chhath, Lalu's eldest son and health minister Tej Pratap Yadav will stage a Mahabharat at his 3 Deshratan Marg residence. They say they are waiting for the "real" Mahabharat. "The Mahabharat is an epic about a battle between brothers for power," said a BJP leader, implying that they were expecting a political battle between Tejashwi Yadav and Tej. In Bihar, deputy chief minister Tejashwi is seen as the inheritor of Lalu's legacy. "But history is proof that the king's choice among princes is often unseated," the BJP leader said. RJD leaders insist the BJP's hopes will not materialise. "So far the two brothers have strongly defended each other in public," an RJD leader said, pointing out how Tej had heaped scorn on BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi for his sarcastic remark on marriage proposals coming for Tejashwi "and not Tej".

'Visionary' Lalu

RJD ministers, when they are talking in public, never forget to present RJD chief Lalu Prasad as a "visionary" and chief minister Nitish Kumar as implementer of the visions. At a function attended by Nitish, labour minister Vijay Prakash spoke at length on how Lalu visualised developmental scenes for Bihar and Nitish fulfilled Lalu's dream by getting them implemented. Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav spoke on similar lines. "Nitish, who was present on the occasion, pretended not to hear and was seen talking to his officials," said an onlooker. But a JDU leader wondered why Bihar was noted for bad governance during Lalu's 15-year tenure if he was indeed such a visionary. He even said that Lalu had begun talking about development because he does not want Nitish to take full credit for it. "Besides, it is Lalu who made Vijay and the others ministers. If they don't hail him, they'd lose their jobs," the leader said.

Ban blues

A very senior Congress leader and former chief minister privately wondered how chief minister Nitish Kumar could implement total prohibition in the state. In private conversations he said that when he was chief minister there was a lot of pressure to ban liquor but he never did it because he knew it was not possible and often leads to illegal liquor trade. "We totally agree with the senior leader but have to publicly support Nitish or else we'll be out of the alliance," said a senior Congress leader.