Patna: The RJD is waiting for the D-Day, December 23, with fingers crossed.

It's the day when the fate of their party chief Lalu Prasad will be decided by the CBI Ranchi court in a fodder scam case related to the fraudulent withdrawal from the Deoghar treasury. The party, which was gearing up for the Bihar bandh it has called on December 21 against shortage of sand and stone chips in Bihar, is putting up a brave face. "We have full faith in the judiciary. But the bandh programme will be held as per schedule," said former deputy chief minister and Lalu's younger son Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday.

The development was not entirely unexpected and RJD chief Lalu Prasad has hinted in his public speech and to party workers that he may go to jail. "But when a leader like Lalu ji goes to jail, RJD leaders and workers are bound to be demoralised. His absence is a vacuum impossible to fill," said an office-bearer of the party.

The last time Lalu went to jail was September 2013, when he was convicted in another fodder scam case. And lost his Lok Sabha seat in the process debarred from contesting polls. But he got bail in December. "But the situation was different in 2013. We had an UPA government at the Centre and in Jharkhand. Access to him even in jail was easy. This time, there are hostile governments at both places. The jail manual for access to Lalu would be probably followed," said a former RJD minister.

In the absence of Lalu, the job of shouldering the responsibility of the party will fall on Tejashwi. Tejashwi has undoubtedly made a mark inside the Assembly, when he takes on senior leaders of the NDA like Sushil Kumar Modi and others. "But running a party is a different ball game which he has to still master. What is more in the absence of Lalu ji, the party will be more vulnerable to split," said the former minister expressing apprehension that Nitish Kumar was trying to split the party along with the Congress and disturb the calculations for the Rajya Sabha elections next year in which the RJD is sure of winning two of the five seats from Bihar.

Tejashwi still has to get in the mode of having a one-on-one relationship with MLAs and important party workers, which his father had eight down to the village party workers who he knows by name. The very reason the party leaders are hoping a favourable verdict from the court is the fact that they still do not have confidence in Tejashwi's ability to leader the party.