RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday faced the embarrassing situation of a senior leader openly asking him to take moral responsibility for the party’s electoral debacle in Bihar and step down. The RJD leadership quickly shot down the demand and sought to downplay its likely impacts.
As the RJD’s two-day brainstorming session over its humiliating defeat in Bihar’s Assembly polls progressed on the second day, senior leader Akhlakh Ahmed suggested in his speech that the erstwhile Bihar strongman must humbly step down as the RJD chief and allow the party to rebuild itself. The suggestion, made in front of Mr Yadav and hundreds of RJD leaders, first led to a sudden quiet descending on the conclave venue at the official residence of Rabri Devi, Mr Yadav’s wife and a former Bihar chief minister.
But soon there were murmurs — some of bafflement, some others of shock and protest — emerging from the rows of delegates, all the RJD candidates in the Assembly polls and heads of the party’s district and block units. With these murmurs growing louder, Ahmed ended his speech abruptly. “What I suggested was in the interests of the party as per the demands of time,” he later said.
This is the first time Mr Yadav had to face an open call for stepping down as the head of the party.
that he built over the past 13 years and lent it the weight of his own image as a fervently secular leader and regional satrap. RJD sources said Mr Ahmed’s call could have wider reverberations in the party and prompt Mr Yadav to take several corrective steps.
“The demand (for Yadav’s resignation) was quickly rejected by everyone present. Everyone reposed their faith in Laluji as the party chief. Ahmed vented his frustration and anger at not being given an Assembly poll ticket,” said RJD general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ram Kripal Yadav. He even charged Ahmed with having worked against the RJD’s official candidates to ensure their defeat in the polls.