Dissent against Lalu in party
NALIN VERMA
Telegraph, Oct. 9, 2006

Patna, Oct. 8: If the railway turnaround gives Lalu Prasad a reason to
rejoice, the acts of party members do just the opposite.

The headaches, it seems, are many for the Rashtriya Janata Dal
president. If party MLAs in Jharkhand stay firm on being part of the
Madhu Koda cabinet, Bihar RJD spokesperson Bhola Prasad Singh takes a
dig at the leadership over "irregularities" in the appointment of
personnel to the state Legislative Council when the party was in
power.

Now, veteran leader Shivanand Tiwary has made it clear that he has
problems with the way the party chief operates, especially when it
comes to Bihar politics.

"Lalu Prasad openly backed his family members by sending his
brother-in-law Subhas Yadav to the Rajya Sabha in 2005. Another
brother-in-law, Sadhu, is already a party MP from Gopalganj. Now, he
has his wife and deposed chief minister as leader of Opposition in the
Bihar Assembly," Tiwary told reporters today. "There is no space for
party workers like us in the RJD".

Tiwary, who has written half-a-dozen letters to the party chief
alleging "nepotism" on his (Lalu Prasad's) part, has been seen moving
around with state Janata Dal (United) chief Lallan Singh for the past
two months. Sources said he also called on chief minister Nitish Kumar
at his 1 Anne Marg residence recently.

The RJD national spokesperson has openly praised Nitish's development
work. "Yes, Nitish Kumar is doing good work for the state on the
development and law and order fronts," Tiwary said.

Lalu Prasad, who helped Koda come to power after the fall of the Arjun
Munda government in Jharkhand, soon found the going tough. He could
not take a decision on the two MLAs who would join the Koda cabinet
due to internal problems.

Lalu Prasad, it was believed, wanted Girinath Singh and Annapurna Devi
in the ministry. But MLAs Ramchandra Chandravanshi and Prakash Ram
queered the pitch by threatening to "go to any extent" if they were
not included in the cabinet. Lalu Prasad later announced that the
party would support the Koda government "from outside".

"Despite being the railway minister and a vital component of the UPA,
Lalu Prasad suffered a huge loss of authority after Rabri Devi lost
power to Nitish Kumar. His success in toppling the Jharkhand
government is hardly enough to compensate the loss he has suffered," a
party leader said.

The family members, too, seem to have deserted the raja of Bihar.
Sadhu and Subhas Yadav, Lalu Prasad's brothers-in-law, are no longer
seen around him the way they used to be not long ago.

Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi had stood by with the RJD chief
when he became chief minister for the first time. Nitish was then Lalu
Prasad's "right hand man" in the Janata Dal and Modi was in the BJP,
which extended support to the new government.

Now, Nitish and Modi have joined hands against him. "Lalu has lost the
support base as well as his friends…he will lose his political
identity slowly but steadily," Tiwary said.