Erstwhile NDA partners —BJP and JD(U) — welcomed the five-year jail term to RJD chief lalu Prasad.
The national BJP leaders hoped that RJD supporters would side with their party to defeat Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) Government in Bihar while the party’s State leaders expected that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar too will now meet the same fate in the fodder scam case. In the milieu, the RJD anticipated a bail for Yadav setting aside all speculations as who would lead the party.
The former Chief Minister Rabri Devi along with her elder son Tej Pratap and other members, relatives, friends and some associates kept tracking for the latest updates on television since morning. There has been a huge congregation of media outside the gate of Rabri residence but none from the family on Thursday came out to address them.
Sources inside the residence said that soon after the five year sentence flashed on a local television channel, Rabri went upstairs. Only the elder son Tej Pratap remained downstairs but he did not meet anyone.
Significantly, members of the youth brigade of RJD had come to meet Tej Pratap at the residence. Pratap met them inside the residence campus but refused to make any comment but party MP Ram Kripal Yadav obliged the waiting media.a lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan met Yadav in jail on Thursday. Yadav’s son Tejaswi too met him along with other party leaders.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the fodder scam was the biggest scam of its time and Yadav’s imprisonment for his involvement in it would send out a strong message. Prasad hinted that RJD’s core vote base of Yadavs would look for other options with its party supremo lodged behind bars.
Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the verdict will act as a deterrent against corruption for politicians and demanded fast-track courts be set to try cases involving politicians involved in corruption. “The fodder scam case took 16 years, Masood’s case 17 years and other politically important cases like 2G, coalgate, and Commonwealth Games, among others, are facing abnormal delays,” Naidu said.
JD (U) echoed a similar message and MP Shabir Ali said, “Nobody could deny that Yadav has his influence (in politics) but the kind of verdict which has been delivered would certainly weaken RJD. The long arms of law will get people involved in corruption”.
Senior RJD leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Ram Kripal Yadav alleged a political conspiracy and ruled out the possibility of a change in party leadership, saying its chief will be out on bail soon.
Welcoming the court verdict Bihar BJP leader Giriraj Singh commented “lalu ko karni ki saja mili hai” and at the same time remarked that “now Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar too will go to jail in the same fodder scam”. Another leader and friend-turned-foe of Nitish, Upendra Kushwaha too said Nitish is also guilty in the case and he will also have to face the same fate.