Can’t write me off so easily, says Sharad Yadav

Patna: Sharad Yadav is known for making his feelings public in his characteristic style but last Sunday he left Bihar without any expression and with a sense of disappointment. The 72-year-old socialist leader was so upset that he drove straight from Madhepura to Patna airport and spent four hours there waiting for his flight, all alone.

In Madhepura, his former constituency, he told some of his close confidants that he could not muster the support of his known supporters but will continue making efforts to convince them to oppose Nitish Kumar who has dumped the Grand Alliance and joined the NDA. The journey ahead for the JD(U) leader may be lonely but the old political war horse, who has remained in Parliament for more than seven terms, including his two terms in Rajya Sabha, has dropped hints that he cannot be written off so easily.

He has made made it clear that he is willing to go it alone to fight for people’s cause and programme. He has not bared his game plan, indicating that his future course will depend on the aggression his own party shows against him for his open revolt. The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) has joined the NDA despite Sharad Yadav’s opposition. The disgruntled leader unsuccessfully raised a banner of revolt.

Sharad Yadav now appears to have been left isolated and without the numbers within the party to unseat Nitish Kumar from the helm. Even on the day of the JD(U)’s national executive in Patna, Sharad Yadav organised a parallel convention but the response was not very encouraging.

“I do not care who is with him (Kumar) and who is not. I will continue to fight for the people’s cause and programme,” Sharad Yadav declared at the meeting. Nitish Kumar had dared Sharad Yadav to split the party if he has the numbers, while reminding the rebel leader that all 71 MLAs and 30 MLCs along with two Lok Sabha MPs were with him.

After Sharad Yadav openly defied Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) removed him as leader of the party in Rajya Sabha. A day later, 21 of his supporters were also expelled from the JD(U) for “going against the party line”. After getting axed from the parliamentary post, Sharad Yadav has been relegated the back benches of the Upper House, after years of being seated in the front row with other top leaders.

With two Rajya Sabha MPs behind Sharad Yadav and a few state unit presidents showing solidarity with him, the idea of floating his own political front has also crossed his mind. If he does so he may lose his Rajya Sabha seat, which he is entitled to hold till 2023. However, the Opposition leaders want him to remain in Parliament and add to their strength.

In the short-term, there are signals form leaders close to Sharad Yadav that he is not likely to risk leaving Parliament. For keeping his Rajya Seat, he may even skip RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Patna rally on August 27, as joining the event will give JD(U) chief a reason to sack him from the party.

After his spat with Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav has drifted closer to  “secular” Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left and the TMC, with whom he organised a conclave in Delhi to “save the composite culture” of India.

But with limited options before him, the JD(U) veteran was heard complaining that JD(U) is the party which he, along with late Chaudhary Devi Lal, formed and nurtured but now he himself is being pushed towards the door.

“A number of people broke away from the Janata Dal and now, those in the party are trying to make me homeless,” he told his loyalists, after claiming that “he was heading the real JD(U) while Bihar CM was leading the Sarkari JD(U)”.

Sharad Yadav was recently in Bihar to the “understand public mood” after Nitish Kumar snapped the Grand Alliance but he failed to attract the attention of JD(U) legislators and workers and had to rely on support extended by RJD chief Lalu Yadav.

Sharad Yadav came close to Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes  after the merger of Samata party with Janata Dal in 2003. In 2007, Sharad Yadav became the president of the JD(U). During the JD(U)’s infighting, Lalu Yadav has acknowledged Sharad Yadav, whom he defeated in Madhepura once, as “a very senior and like-minded socialist leader”.

Both Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar are junior to Sharad Yadav in politics. Incidentally, the three have a habit of changing parties and sides as per their convenience. It remains to be seen where Sharad Yadav lands now, after failing to split the JD(U) and making clear his unwillingness to join the saffron fold.