Shahabuddin verdict a setback to Lalu

The apex court ruling on RJD leader Mohd Shahabuddin has dealt a severe blow to party president Lalu Prasad, but at the same time, the verdict has served as a shot in the arm for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.  Earlier this week, Nitish had said that his biggest USP was “rule of law in Bihar”.

Ever since Shahabuddin – facing over 38 cases of murder and kidnap, and sentenced to life in two cases – was released from jail on September 10, Nitish’s discomfort was palpable.

After being set free, Shahabuddin rubbed salt on Nitish’s wounds when he termed him “a CM due to circumstances” and compared him with former chief minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda, who had no mass base.

In his 20 days of freedom from jail, Shahabuddin dealt one blow after another to Nitish and said the JD(U) chief would never be his leader. “My leader is Lalu Prasad. My relationship with Nitish was never good and nor will it improve in the days to come,” said the Siwan strongman, who has represented the constituency four times in the Lok Sabha between 1996 and 2009.

Shahabuddin’s continuous diatribe against Nitish was his undoing. While Lalu defended his protégé, he never asked him to calm down and stop deriding Nitish in public. 

As a consequence, the two ruling allies – the RJD and the JD(U) – saw their ties strained to the point of a breakdown until the Congress intervened and stood by Nitish like a rock, thereby making it clear to all those who mattered that in the battle of one-upmanship, it was with Nitish. Eventually, the Nitish Kumar government decided to challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court at a time when the victims’ parents, too, moved the apex court through senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

Though initially, reports poured in that RJD Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani would defend Shahabuddin, it is believed that the eminent lawyer backed out at the last moment at the behest of Lalu Prasad.

This was done arguably because it would have been a huge embarrassment for the Nitish government, which was opposing the bail, while at the same time a ruling party MP would have been seen defending the convicted leader.

With Shahabuddin by his side, Lalu had planned to use his protégé to extend his hold over Muslims who constitute 17% of the electorate. But the apex court ruling will now force him to draw a fresh strategy minus Shahabuddin.