A Settled Succession

By executing a smooth generational change in the RJD, Lalu has ensured that his family remains politically relevant

- Soni Mishra

LAST DECEMBER, Lalu Prasad was convicted in the second of the five fodder scam cases against him. The Rashtriya Janata Dal president had been jailed eight times earlier in connection with cases related to the scam, and each time, he had managed to bounce back politically. This time, though, the situation was different. The RJD was out of power in Bihar after the breakdown of its grand alliance with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), and the government at the Centre was perceivably hostile to it.

A shrewd politician, Lalu had realised, months before his conviction, that it was time for a generational change in his party. He began by letting his sons, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav, lead the offensive against the Nitish Kumar government with their Janadesh Apman Yatra in August last year. The brothers launched the yatra with a rally in Champaran, from where Gandhi had launched his satyagraha against the British Raj.

Two months later, the RJD’s organisational elections were announced. With more than a year left for him to complete his term as party president, Lalu was named ‘president for life’. And, RJD leaders unanimously passed a resolution proposing that Lalu’s younger son, Tejashwi, lead the party under his father’s guidance.

Lalu, 70, has spent the past few months alternating between jail and hospital. He is battling serious health issues, including extensive damage to his kidneys. The RJD, though, appears to be in the pink, thanks to Lalu’s political foresight. Tejashwi, 28, has come of age as a politician, even as the party has consolidated its core support base of Yadavs and Muslims. With the JD(U) tying up with the BJP, and the Congress appearing feeble, Muslims in the state have no choice but to support the RJD. The situation has helped the RJD win three byelections this year.