Lalu Prasad Yadav may secure 3 Rajya Sabha nominations

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s apparent armtwisting of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is likely to get him three Rajya Sabha nominations out of five vacancies for wife Rabri Devi and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who is a sharp critic of the JD(U). Despite being the second largest party in Bihar, the JD(U) is likely to get only one nomination out of five of its leaders retiring this year.

Sources said that Ms Misa Yadav, daughter of the RJD supremo, would have to wait till 2018 when there would be next vacancy in the Rajya Sabha from Bihar for her maiden entry into Parliament after she unsuccessfully contested from the Patna City Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

While Ms Rabri Devi has been tipped to get Rajya Sabha nomination for a long time, which would allow the RJD chief a sprawling bungalow in Luytens’ Delhi due to her status as the former state chief minister, Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s choice is being seen as clear assertion of Mr Lalu Yadav in the scheme of things of the ruling grand alliance in the state. Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who was Union minister for rural development in UPA-1 and had spearheaded the launch and implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), has been a sharp critic of Mr Kumar.

In the normal scheme of the things, the RJD and JD(U) should have shared two seats each in the Rajya Sabha elections this year, while the BJP would bag one. But, sources said, the RJD supremo has argued that his party would return the equation in favour of the JD(U) in 2018, but this year the party needed most of the seats.

Besides the Rajya Sabha nominations, the RJD supremo reportedly makes administrative inspections in the state and publicly counsels the chief minister on the issue of law and order.

Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and the JD(U) leaders were recently locked in a war of words on the issue of the RJD supremo issuing “instructions” to the chief minister on the law and order issue.