Devendra Yadav dropped at Laloo's instance
Tara Shankar Sahay in Delhi
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)."
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