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The Rediff Interview/Nitish Kumar

'Laloo is a conman in the lowest sense of the term'

Time was when they were inseparable comrades-in-arms, standing up for each other in the political battlefield. Then rivalry got the better of friendship and they finally became foes, irreconciliably alienated.

It has been almost eight years since Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and senior Samata Party politician and Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar parted ways. Both have continued to try to establish their political sway in Bihar, their home state. But now, barely two weeks before a crucial assembly election in the province, the RJD chief has praised Nitish Kumar to the skies, in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between him and the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, his current ally.

Nitish Kumar's embracing the National Democratic Alliance fold caused considerable discomfiture to Yadav who cannot stomach a potential chief ministerial rival. The BJP leadership knows that Kumar, an influential politician, has the following of his Kurmi community in the state and can deliver the coup de grace to the RJD. But the recent disagreements among the BJP, the Samata Party and the Janata Dal (United), on sharing the 425 seats in the state assembly have given Yadav an opportunity.

Samata Party workers huddled in small groups on the lawns of 5 Bishamber Das Road, Nitish Kumar's residence in the state capital, discuss the "inevitability" of their leader replacing Yadav's wife Rabri Devi as Bihar's chief minister. "Nitishji ko Bihar ke mukhyamantri pad se kaun rok sakta hai (Who can stop Nitish Kumar from becoming Bihar's chief minister)?" a bearded activist asks.

"BJP chahe kucch bhi kare, Nitishiji ke siwai NDA mein aur koi nahi hai, (Whatever the BJP might do, there is no other [chief ministerial] candidate in the NDA), " one of them claimed.

In an interview with Tara Shankar Sahay, Nitish Kumar says Laloo Prasad is too self-centred to praise anybody but himself. If he spoke highly of him, Nitish Kumar, it just showed that Yadav is fast losing ground because the people are eager to punish him for having taken them for a ride for so long. Excerpts:

How do you perceive Laloo Prasad's new-found love for you?

What love? The only person Laloo can love is himself or a member of his family. He has been sending overtures to me to rejoin him. What for? I am a leader in my own right, I have my own sphere of influence, and Laloo now wants me to prop him up.

He is too clever by half, thinking he can easily lull his opponents into indiscretion or submission. What he does not understand is that his own days are numbered and that he is fast reaching the end of the political road.

Media reports from Bihar suggest that his fortunes are on the upswing...

Only myopia can suggest such a thing. Look at the ground realities -- the fabled Laloo charisma is a thing of the past. During the parliamentary poll, the people of Madhepura taught him a lesson. He took pride in boasting that he had not visited the Madhepura parliamentary constituency even once after the polls in 1998. He thought he could get away with his rustic humour and his I-am-the-king-of-the-ring attitude. See how the people of that constituency rejected him.

Laloo is a conman in the lowest sense of the term, but his activities are rebounding [on him]... The people of Bihar can see through his diaphanous promises now. So he is saying that he has erred and the people will forgive him. No such thing will happen. Laloo and his politics stand exposed.

Could you explain why Laloo Prasad is also praising JD-U leader Ram Vilas Paswan?

I told you, Laloo's reconciliation with the ground realities in Bihar is spurring him to do desperate things. It is as if he is no more in possession of his mental faculties. Look at the way ministers in his wife's RJD state government are deserting him, as are so many of his partymen.

The leaders and workers of his party know that after using them he discards them like old calendars. You have seen the substantial number of leaders who have deserted him. So now he has taken to wooing leaders like me who were once with him. But nobody, least of all I, will join hands with Laloo. His bluff has been called. It is time his jungle raj is consigned to the dustbin of history.

But why should you blame Laloo Prasad when the Samata Party, BJP and JD-U have been fighting over seat-sharing in Bihar?

It is none of Laloo's business. Let him first put his RJD house in order. It is our business to sort out various matters among ourselves. Why should outsiders crib?

Laloo has lost sleep over the fact that he has to face us together. Besides, the Congress too is contesting the poll separately. He is virtually left alone to face the music, even if he has the CPI-M with him.

He has been trying to malign me for the last two years, claiming on television that I ring him up and we are on friendly terms. It is due to this kind of mischievous disinformation that people from all walks of life have lost their trust in the RJD chief.

Anand Mohan Singh of the Bihar People's Party is yet to formalise his party's alliance with the NDA constituents in Bihar...

I think the matter will be resolved.

Is Laloo Prasad right that the people of Bihar have noted the Vajpayee government's "vindictive attitude" in hounding him and his family over a number of concocted allegations and that they will give the Centre an appropriate reply during the assembly election?

You should know better. He is facing certain serious charges and if they are proved, he will have to pay dearly for it. That is all I have to say right now.

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