A crowd waits outside the ancestral house of slain Purnea MLA Rajkishore Keshari at Madhubani locality in Purnea on Wednesday. Picture by Amit Kumar

Patna, Jan. 5: Personal assistants often land their masters in trouble, as did deceased BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshari’s aide, Bipin Rai.

The first target of Rupam Pathak, who stabbed the MLA to death yesterday, was Rai. Rai was not at Keshari’s home when Rupam reached there.

Rai escaped the wrath of the murderer school principal. But his master could not.

During the preliminary interrogation, Rupam reportedly declared that had the personal assistant of the MLA been present with him on Tuesday morning, she would have stabbed Rai first.

“But Rai was not there and the presence of Keshari was too tempting to resist,” a defiant Rupam told the police.

She told the police that the MLA had sexually abused her just once but Rai exploited her sexually for two years. She claimed that she remained silent fearing defamation of her school.

Legislators can appoint a person as personal assistant (PA), who is supposed to take care of trivial issues like entertaining visitors and sorting mails. The PAs accompany the MLA or the minister concerned almost everywhere and is paid Rs 10,000 per month as salary.

Like Rai, there are several PAs who get too big for their shoes. “Some PAs are known as Mr 5 per cent because that is the percentage they add over and above the legislator’s commission for any undue favour,” said an official.

People are aware that if they want to get close to their vidhayakji, they have to please the PA sahib first. “The PA is exposed to all sorts of temptations, which even the legislators or ministers might not know,” the official said.

“There may be some cases where the PA plays an extra-constitutional role. But that is an exception. The role of PAs is well-defined. They will cooperate with the MLA or the minister concerned to make his work easier. They not the one who take the decision. It’s the minister or the legislator who calls the shots,” said food and consumer affairs minister Shyam Rajak.

He said the danger of PAs getting more powerful than the minister or the legislator concerned is possible only when the PA is a son or a close relative. “But now we have to give a declaration while appointing PAs that they are not our direct relatives,” he said.

Political pundits pointed out that the PAs get bigger than their shoes primarily because of the failure of the legislators.

“If a legislator or a minister takes money and lacks integrity, the PA can take advantage of the situation and make money,” said another JD (U) minister.

The withdrawal of legislators’ development funds is likely to curb the influence of PAs as it is regarded as a source of corruption.