Dular Chand Yadav was campaigning for the Jan Suraaj Party candidate from Mokama, Piyush Priyadarshi, when he was killed, allegedly by the supporters of Janata Dal (United)’s controversial nominee Anant Singh.

Singh is considered close to chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The killing reminds me of an incident in August 16, 2013 when then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi welcomed Sadhu Yadav, the notorious brother-in-law of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Yadav at his official residence in Gandhinagar. Sadhu was accompanied by former Union minister Dasai Chaudhary. The 45-minute long meeting had rendered the Bihar unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party speechless as its leaders struggled explain it.

Seven months later in March 2014, former chief minister Rabri Devi declared her long-estranged brother her enemy after he decided to contest from Saran Lok Sabha seat as an Independent candidate to ensure the victory of the BJP and the defeat of his sister. Sadhu’s decision to throw his hat in the ring can be assumed to be the fallout of the meeting which he had with Modi. More than Lalu, it was Rabri who had publicly thundered during the campaign against her brothers who had – during the days of her husband’s imprisonment – done activities that she said the couple had never asked them to do.

During the heydays of Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi government, between 1990 and 2005, the BJP would often target Sadhu and his brother Subhash, along with current deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary, former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav and ex-minister Shyam Rajak.

A family feud

Rabri is also known to have blamed her brothers and their men for the chaos during the weddings of two of their daughters Misa Bharti and Rohini Acharya. It was because of the revolt within the family which started on the eve of the 2005 assembly elections that Sadhu and some of his associates were not invited by Lalu to the Delhi wedding functions of his daughters.

Rabri had earlier squarely held Sadhu responsible for the defeat of RJD in 2005 election – which led to the rise of Nitish Kumar. In one constituency, Sadhu's wife had defeated the official RJD candidate.

In December 2021, Sadhu went public in denouncing Tejashwi Yadav’s marriage to his wife citing the fact that she was Christian, speaking the the language of the hardliners within the BJP.

While Rabri's two brothers have sunk into political oblivion, the three other beneficiaries of the Lalu-Rabri raj are now the leading lights of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar. They are also in the fray this time. Prime minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Shah have focused on criticising the so-called 'jungle raj'. But its main characters are now in the NDA, especially the BJP and speak volumes against the 15 years of "misrule" of which they were a part.

Doublespeak

In August 2013, senior party leader, the late Sushil Modi, who was till June 16 of that year the deputy CM of Bihar, tweeted against the inclusion of Sadhu Yadav into the BJP. Sushil Modi also told reporters that he would talk to Narendra Modi in this regard. Could this unusual development have occurred without taking into confidence the Bihar BJP leader? Clearly Sushil Modi had to come out with the statement only after he sensed that this development has sent a wrong signal among the common masses.

The Bihar BJP was passing through a bad phase as only two months earlier, chief minister Nitish Kumar had sacked all 11 ministers belonging to the saffron party and snapped his 17-year association with it.

A month later on September 13 Narendra Modi was made the prime ministerial candidate of the saffron brigade.

After his Gandhinagar meeting, Sadhu showered praise on Narendra Modi and said that he would prove to be a better prime minister than Rahul Gandhi could be. He had reason to feel upset with the Congress leader as he was cold shouldered by the Congress after he unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Gopalganj Lok Sabha election on its ticket. Congress and RJD, though constituents of the United Progressive Alliance, fought separately in 2009 leading to the big victory of National Democratic Alliance, at least in Bihar.

The RJD was quick to accuse Narendra Modi of using Sadhu for fomenting a family feud. But while BJP was compelled to stonewall Sadhu's entry, the latter has not let any opportunity go to ensure the defeat of RJD’s candidates, even his own sister, nieces and nephews.

Incidentally, the ED, CBI and Income Tax departments have left Sadhu largely alone.

All that is new

While Ram Kripal Yadav was duly rewarded with a berth in the first Narendra Modi government, Samrat Chaudhary was first made the state unit chief of the BJP and subsequently the deputy chief minister.

During the apex of the 15-year rule, Ram Kripal Yadav would often call himself "Lalu Prasad's Hanuman". On the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he crossed over to the BJP and defeated none other than Misa Bharati from the Pataliputra constituency.

However, February 2014 also witnessed the birth of another Hanuman, not of Lalu but of Narendra Modi. Lok Janshakti Party scion Chirag Paswan virtually compelled his father Ram Bilas Paswan to abandon the sinking ship led by Rabri. In the last week of February, the Paswans suddenly announced the cancellation of all seat-sharing talks with RJD. Chirag proclaimed that he is the Hanuman of Narendra Modi.

But in the eyes of Giriraj Singh and several other Bihar BJP stalwarts, Paswan's entry into NDA was to be blocked. So, when Narendra Modi landed at Patna airport on way to launch his 2014 election campaign from Muzaffarpur, Giriraj was among those who appealed to him not to share the dais with Ram Vilas Paswan against whom they had fought for so long. Paswan was very much on the stage.

Three months later when Modi became prime minister, he along with Giriraj inducted the same Paswan into the cabinet. Now, his son is a minister.

Mokama killing

The October 30 killing of Dular Chand Yadav exposed the double standards of not only the BJP but also of the mainstream media.

As he was a Yadav, a prominent newspaper headlined it 'Ex-Lalu Aide Killed', not mentioning that he was once actually a strong supporter of Nitish Kumar, who used to contest from the Barh Lok Sabha seat within which Mokama falls. Nitish had to rely heavily on him as well as on Anant Singh and his brothers. Nitish, Dular Chand and Anant Singh’s elder brother, the late Dilip Singh, were made the accused in the 1991 murder of Congress worker Sitaram Singh.

Lalu and Nitish were both in V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal at that time.

However, by 1995, the three went three separate ways. Nitish broke away to form the Samata Party and Dular Chand decided to contest as an Independent against Lalu’s candidate from Bakhtiarpur. When I ran into him during the 1995 assembly election, he proclaimed: “Lalu ji may be the chief minister of Bihar, but I am the chief minister of Tal (riverine) region of the state.”

Dular Chand has died at 75, while campaigning for Prashant Kishor. And yet, mediapersons are busy linking him with Lalu.

When I went on the ground to cover the 1995 assembly election for The Times of India locals said that Dular Chand was something of a self-styled Robin Hood. But beyond stories, the fact is that he was a localised figure who was effective in Nitish’s elections from Barh but could not himself get elected to the assembly. The attempts to connect him to Lalu Yadav is a particular twist to this story, given by the media.

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