The nomination of jailed RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin in the national executive of the party has added a new arrow in opposition BJP’s quiver to attack the Grand Alliance of which RJD is the largest constituent. 

The RJD had announced the list of its party office-bearers on Sunday after a meeting of party leaders with RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Patna on Sunday evening. The 54-member national executive has prominent names like Lalu’s better half Rabri Devi and the couple’s three children Misa Bharti, Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav.

A day after Shahabuddin’s nomination to the coveted body of the ruling RJD, the BJP on Monday demanded chief minister Nitish Kumar’s intervention on this issue claiming that the elevation of Shahabuddin would work as a deterrent for the state bureaucracy and police in taking action against the jailed leader in the ongoing case. “We demand Nitish’s intervention because the RJD is an ally of the ruling JDU in Bihar,” BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.

Shahabuddin has been in jail after his arrest from Delhi in November 2005 after a case was lodged against him for carrying out an attack on a police team, including the then Siwan superintendent of police Bachhu Singh Meena.

A raid on the former MP’s ancestral house in Siwan’s Pratappur village, around 170km northwest of Patna, had yielded seizure of sophisticated weapons, foreign currencies and deer skin.

Last year, Shahabuddin was charged with plotting the murder of a prominent businessman’s son who was an eyewitness in the double murder case. The RJD leader, who was recently granted bail by

Patna High Court in connection with another double murder case, was shifted to Bhagalpur Central Jail from Siwan last year on the ground that his presence in Siwan would affect the Assembly elections. He was brought back to Siwan jail on November 24 last year.

The JDU, however, rubbished the BJP’s demand and the party spokesperson appeared a bit acerbic while reacting to the plea. “Sushil Kumar Modi lives in a fool’s paradise. He does not understand the difference between governance and intra-party politics. The chief minister has no business with the functioning of other political parties and so far as pressure on the bureaucracy and police is concerned, it is the responsibility of the government and no one can raise a finger against Nitish

Kumar on the governance front,” said Dr Ajay Alok.
RJD leaders, too, rubbished the issue. Deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav claimed it to be a non-issue.

His mother Rabri Devi chose to be more aggressive and said: “First the BJP should sack a goonda (goon) like Amit Shah before raising a finger on us.”