Left alone: Lalu Prasad

Patna, June 18: The RJD’s sudden decision to support the CPM candidate in the bypoll in Purnea — an east Bihar Assembly seat — is apparently an outcome of the Congress central leadership’s “snub” to Lalu Prasad’s friendly gestures of late.

The beleaguered RJD boss had been lampooning yoga televangelist Baba Ramdev and also targeting social activist Anna Hazare for their “links” with the RSS in what was described as his “desperate bid” to woo the Congress and re-secure his ministerial position in the Manmohan Singh government.

Aiding to Lalu’s efforts, his RJD cadres initially expressed their support to the Congress nominee from Purnea, Ramcharitra Yadav, to ensure there was “no split in the secular votes”. However, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) issued a statement a couple of days ago saying the party does not need Lalu’s support in Purnea on the “instructions” from the party’s central high command.

Congress insiders revealed that the party’s “think tank”, which includes its general secretary Rahul Gandhi, calculated that any move to “identify” with Lalu Prasad, who is involved in as many as six cases of Rs 950-crore fodder scam, might be counter productive at a time when the party is at the receiving end against the civil society, led by Anna Hazare and Ramdev on the Lokpal bill issue.

And sensing the Congress’s disposition towards him, the RJD boss, too, has suddenly withdrawn his “friendly overtures”, directing his cadres to support CPM nominee Amit Sarkar. Giving the logic for the support to the CPM, the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, said: “The Congress nominee is not in the race. We have decided to support Amit — son of dedicated social worker Ajit Sarkar — to ensure that the secular votes are not divided. ”

But Siddiqui’s logic hardly holds any ground, given the votes that the other candidates earned in the November 2010 Assembly elections. The Congress’s candidate Ramcharitra Yadav secured 39,006 votes, trailing second to Keshari, who had got 54,605 votes (the BJP has fielded Kiran Keshari, widow of Keshari, in the current bypoll). Amit Sarkar trailed third, securing 23,061 votes.

The seat was earlier won by the LJP. Interestingly, Pappu Kumar — the combined LJP-RJD nominee — secured barely 1,830 votes, trailing fifth with an independent nominee, Sumitanand Shankar, securing 2,475 votes. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan is miffed and he has his reasons for it. First, the seat was in the LJP share and as such the RJD should have consulted the LJP while taking any decision to keep the “spirit” of coalition politics alive. The LJP has sent two of its MLAs to assess the ground reality in Purnea and take a final call on the RJD’s decision. It has, however, denied fissures in the relationship between the RJD and the LJP.

Sources said the LJP might not immediately sever its ties with the RJD on Purnea bypoll issue, but the development has clearly suggested that Paswan is not as “big a pariah” for the Congress as Lalu is in the present context. The Congress leadership is calculating that if it takes Paswan — even though he has become feeble in the state — into its fold, it can gain a section of Dalit votes which Paswan still commands.

In fact, prior to the Assembly elections, the Congress had tried to persuade Paswan to break out with Lalu and join hands with the former. But Paswan — rightly sensing Lalu to be a bigger force than the Congress in Bihar — had decided to go ahead with Lalu.

Unruffled by the RJD’s decision, Congress in-charge of Bihar affairs Guruchail Singh today said: “We have not asked for the RJD’s support. We have not written any letter for that. We have just appealed to the secular forces to be with us for we are ahead in the race against the communal forces in Purnea.”