Devendra Yadav dropped at Laloo's instance

Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav was responsible for the exclusion of Janata Dal leader Devendra Prasad Yadav from Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's ministry.

Devendra Yadav was till late last year one of Laloo Yadav's most fervent supporters, and it was at the Bihar chief minister's behest that he was accommodated as minister of food and civil supplies in the Deve Gowda government.

However, Devendra Yadav made the mistake of siding with H D Deve Gowda when the then prime minister engaged Laloo Yadav in a battle of one upmanship. Although Deve Gowda attended Laloo Yadav's huge rally in Patna about six weeks ago -- ostensibly to express solidarity with the besieged Bihar leader -- the animosity between Deve Gowda and Laloo Yadav continued unabated.

A senior Janata Dal MP from Bihar told this correspondent that relations between Devendra Yadav and his former mentor deteriorated in December when the former was wooed by Deve Gowda when the Central Bureau of Investigation began probing the chief minister's role in the fodder scam.

Deve Gowda, the JD MP pointed out, convinced Devendra Yadav that he could be the Bihar chief minister if Laloo Yadav was charge-sheeted by the CBI in the fodder scam and subsequently forced to step down.

Devendra Yadav, thereafter, began distancing himself from the Bihar chief minister and became a regular at Deve Gowda's 7, Race Course Road home for consultations with the prime minister.

Other JD MPs from Bihar reported Devendra Yadav's disloyalty to Laloo Yadav. But it was only after Laloo Yadav found out for himself that Devendra Yadav aspired to replace him as the Bihar chief minister that he resolved to get even with his former protege.

Laloo Yadav then spread the word among his followers in Bihar and Delhi that Devendra Yadav was henceforth to be treated as an "ehsaan faramosh (ungrateful)" who should be ostracised in party affairs. Thereafter, to his increasing distress, Devendra Yadav found himself shunned in JD circles.

According to a JD general secretary, who spoke on condition of anonymity, when the survival of the Deve Gowda government was endangered following withdrawal of Congress support, Devendra Yadav tried to make up with Laloo Yadav. But he was snubbed and sent away with choice expletives ringing in his ear. Laloo said he would ensure that Devendra Yadav did not find a berth in Gujral's government.

Sitting in the chief minister's suite at New Bihar Nivas on Monday, Laloo Yadav was heard to exclaim, "Maine usko thikane laga diya (I have got even with him)."