Lalu Prasad on Friday got his newly elected MLAs to "endorse" Nitish Kumar as chief minister of the Grand Alliance government but kept them guessing on who would be the party's leader in the next Assembly.
The legislature party meeting, held at an upscale hotel in the city, was attended by 79 of the RJD's 80 MLAs - one member, Kedar Singh, is in jail. The MLAs authorised Lalu Prasad to select the leader of the legislature party.
"One proposal passed in the meeting was that Nitish Kumar would be leader of the Grand Alliance. I have proposed Nitish's name," Lalu said.
Ever since the election results were declared on Sunday, Patna's political circles have been abuzz with speculation that Tejaswi, the younger son of the RJD boss, would be anointed the legislature party chief.
No announcement was made today nor did Lalu utter the name himself. But he did not rule it out either. "I have been authorised to name the leader. I will take care of your worries," he quipped when asked if Tejaswi, who won from Raghopur, would get the coveted post.
The RJD is expected to have another round of meeting of its MLAs at 10 Circular Road - the residence of Lalu and Rabri Devi - around 1pm on Saturday before it attends the joint Grand Alliance MLAs' meet at 3pm. Nitish is expected to be formally elected leader then after which he will stake claim to form the new government.
RJD sources, who spoke under cover of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media, said Lalu could announce the name of the legislature party chief after Saturday's meeting.
The sources said the name of Abdul Bari Siddiqui, one of the seniormost MLAs, has also been doing the rounds but a section of RJD leaders feels that this is the best time for Lalu to pass the baton to one of his sons. They pointed out that at Friday's meeting, no MLA suggested the name of Tejaswi and though Siddiqui was present, he did not speak. "If ultimately Lalu decides to name Tejaswi as the leader it is unlikely there will be any revolt. The party accepted Rabri Devi as chief minister in 1997 when she was just a housewife. These two brothers are duly elected MLAs," said a senior RJD leader.
After the meeting got over on Friday, Tejaswi and his elder brother Tej Pratap - who won from Mahua - left the premises, holding hands. They did not utter a word though a volley of questions was hurled at them about their future role.
Siddiqui too skirted questions on the new legislature party leader. "I have nothing to say about this as our leader Lalu ji himself has said that he has been authorised to name the person. There is no point in me saying anything on the issue," he said.
Some sources have suggested that Siddiqui could get the post of Assembly Speaker. But so far there has been no word on whether Nitish Kumar would want to give up the JDU's claim to the post. The outgoing Speaker, the JDU's Udai Narayan Choudhary, incidentally lost the polls.
Lalu also used the occasion to attack the BJP and thank the people for voting the Grand Alliance.
