Patna, Feb. 23: General elections round the corner, Bihar’s latest kidnap episode has taken on a political hue — only, it might not be an abduction after all.

Two days after four minor girls went missing in what is suspected to be an elopement by the eldest, their grandfather, state revenue minister Ramai Ram, has smelt a “high-level political conspiracy against me by a VIP RJD leader”.

He believes the “conspiracy” was hatched “since I have put my foot firmly down to contest from the Hajipur seat against the wishes of some in the party”.

Hajipur is the turf of Ram Vilas Paswan, who is Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav’s ally this time.

Though police are clueless whether the incident is an abduction or elopement or both, Ram insists the kidnap has some connection with Siwan and alleges a big-time politician is involved. Mohammad Shahabuddin of the RJD is the Siwan MP.

Politician or not, the suspected kidnapper, Muhammad Umar, has his house in Siwan and is the grandson of retired additional district magistrate of Siwan, M.L. Gilani.

Gilani is in police custody after the girls’ father, Vijay Kumar, who is the minister’s son-in-law, lodged an FIR with Patna Secretariat police station accusing Umar of kidnapping his daughters on Saturday night when they went out to buy stationery on Boring Road here.

“With no demand for ransom reported so far, we are inclined to consider the case as elopement,” a senior police officer in Patna said.

Another clue fuelling this suspicion is the information that there were no stationery shops in the direction in which the girls had proceeded after alighting from their jeep. A troublesome angle is the report that the girls were loaded with cash and jewellery when they left home.

Gudia, Mona, Dipu and Puja, all between 16 and 11 years, were said to have left with three mobile phones and reportedly called up home to say “we are fine”. Umar, a Class XI student of Loyola School here, was Gudia’s classmate last year at another prestigious city school.