For Lalu Yadav, family first, then politics

Apr 29, 2012 - ANAND S.T. DAS |

Age Correspondent

Patna

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is currently very busy with work other than politics. The former Bihar strongman is apparently in a hurry to settle his pressing family responsibilities in order to meet his upcoming political and judicial challenges.

On Saturday, Bihar’s top Opposition leader and the country’s former railway minister had little patience for the media when the latter sought his views on his arch rival and chief minister Nitish Kumar’s ongoing “Seva Yatra” tour of the state, believed to be the JD(U) stalwart’s early preparations for the 2014 General Elections. In fact, Mr Yadav was too busy with inaugurating a motorcycle agency and showroom in Aurangabad, owned by his elder son Tej Pratap.
Securing gainful employment for one of his two sons was Mr Yadav’s latest act of fulfilling his duties as a man heading a large family. Mr Yadav, a former Bihar chief minister, managed to suppress revolt within the RJD earlier April to get his wife Rabri Devi, also a former CM of Bihar, elected as a member of the state Legislative Council. He also got three of his daughters married off in the past six months, the last wedding having taken place in Delhi on April 24.
Mr Yadav is now reportedly busy looking for a suitable groom for his seventh and last daughter, Rajlakshmi, 22, and exploring ways to re-launch his younger son and budding cricketer Tejashwi Yadav, 20, on Bihar’s political stage in a grand way after his lackluster launch in September 2010. Tejashwi’s cricketing career, despite he being an IPL player since its first edition, has remained dull.
According to RJD leaders, Mr Yadav had been devoting time for his family for over a year so as to make himself free to meet the two tough challenges coming his way — the fodder scam cases against him nearing conclusion and the 2014 General Elections. Mr Yadav figures as the main accused in five of the 53 cases of the `950-crore scam on trial in special CBI courts in Bihar and Jharkhand.
“If he (Yadav) gets convicted in a fodder scam case and has to go to jail before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, his younger son and Rabri Devijee will lead the party in the campaigns,” said an RJD leader close to him. A special CBI court in Patna framed charges against Mr Yadav in March.

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