Lalu Prasad and (above) Sonia Gandhi

Patna, July 9: Lalu Prasad’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi ahead of the expected cabinet shuffle has fuelled optimism among the RJD cadres here about their boss’s return to power, in some form at least.

RJD sources said they had reasons for this optimism. The Congress president had snubbed Lalu Prasad’s every effort to meet her after UPA-II assumed power in May 2009. The RJD, the Congress’s second largest ally in UPA-I, was reduced to just four MPs. But, the sources pointed out, she entertained the RJD boss on July 5 amid buzz of a cabinet rejig, which is now expected on Monday.

“Why did she (Sonia) agree to meet Lalu at this crucial juncture? Both Laluji and Soniaji enjoy a strong rapport which Lalu’s detractors have always conspired to break. By meeting him, she has sent out a clear message that she still keeps the RJD boss in her scheme of things,” said a senior RJD leader close to Lalu.

Of late, the RJD boss, while camping in Delhi since his party’s second debacle in the Assembly elections last year, has gone out of his way to woo the Congress leadership. His snub of Anna Hazare when the social activist met him to solicit support on his draft Lokpal bill is seen as an example of his reaching out to the Congress.

The RJD chief had ridiculed Baba Ramdev, a fellow Yadav, in his desperation to get his ministerial position back. He supported the CPM nominee for the Purnea Assembly seat where byelections were held last month when he sensed that the Congress leadership was not responding to his gestures.

But again, on the suggestion of some of his “friends” in the Congress, he supported the Congress candidate for the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha bypolls. Though the RJD-backed Congress failed to win it, the result was not gloomy for the Congress since the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha nominee and former IPS officer, Ajay Kumar, wrested the seat from the BJP in a BJP-ruled state.

The RJD, demoralised by the electoral setbacks, believes that Lalu, in the event of re-gaining his ministerial position, will get the necessary wherewithal to rejuvenate the crestfallen cadres. “If he (Lalu) becomes a minister, he will get the opportunity to do some work for the state the way he did when he was railway minister. He had given several railway projects to Bihar and launched a number of new trains from the state,” said a senior RJD leader.

Sources in the RJD revealed that Lalu Prasad had some strong “friends”, including Digvijay Singh, in the Congress. But the party’s general secretary Rahul Gandhi and his coterie are believed to be averse to Lalu’s return.

Moreover, the “anti-Lalu camp” in the Congress is opposed to the RJD boss’s inclusion on the plea that it would further erode the party’s image on the issue of corruption. Lalu is undergoing trial in as many as six cases in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam.

Bihar Congress leaders, particularly those belonging to the non-Yadav castes, are said to be opposed to his return as minister. “If Lalu is taken back as a union minister, it will prove to be a death knell for the Congress in Bihar,” said a Congress leader.

The leader, however, admitted that Sonia had a “special place” for Lalu Prasad because he had stood behind her when she was engulfed by the controversy over her foreign origin in the late nineties.