Lalu Prasad Yadav, the chief of coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of the Bihar government, on Monday included former party MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, convicted in several cases and sentenced to life in some, as a member in the party’s newly constituted national executive committee.
Mr. Yadav’s move has triggered a political slugfest with the Opposition BJP slamming the government for “giving protection to strongmen in the State.”
However, Mr. Prasad’s wife and RJD leader Rabri Devi defended the move, asking “why doesn’t the BJP remove [president] Amit Shah instead of questioning us?”
“Lalu Prasad has included Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is in jail in connection with the brutal murder of a businessman’s sons, in his party’s national executive committee. Will anyone come to Bihar for investment when the government is giving open political protection to strongmen,” asked BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
On Monday, Mr. Modi tweeted that by “including his family members in the party’s national executive committee, Lalu Prasad has made RJD a private limited company, holding 51 per cent of its shares with himself.”
The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Prem Kumar, said the move “shows there is no rule or regulation in the State now.”
However, reacting to the BJP’s attack, Ms. Devi referred to the BJP president and asked, “Why doesn’t the BJP put its house in order first?”
Ms. Devi too has been included in the party’s national executive committee, along with her two Minister-sons and the elder daughter Misa Bharti. The committee is the party’s highest decision-making body.
Four-time party MP from Siwan, Mr. Shahabuddin has been lodged in the district jail for the last several years. Recently, RJD leader and Minority Welfare Minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet, Abdul Gafoor, set off a political controversy when a photograph showing him feasting with Mr. Shahabuddin and another party MLA Harishankar Yadav in Siwan jail went viral on social media.
Though the Nitish Kumar government suspended the jail officials after the controversy, no action was taken against the Minister.
