With Tejashwi and Tej Pratap, Lalu has strengthened his dynasty in Bihar

In the euphoric press conference soon after BJP was trounced in Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav said “it was neither JD(U) government nor RJD government. It is a ‘Mahagatbandhan sarkar’. Soon after the cabinet was sworn on Friday, there is room for some ambiguity, for it could be a Nitish Kumar government with Lalu Yadav, via his two sons, trying to wrest at least half control, if not more, of the arrangement. Like with the country’s First Family, that is the Nehru-Gandhi lineage being the Congress, Lalu Yadav is the RJD, never mind he is not even the chief of the party — it only has a vice president. He is the supremo who, however, cannot sign a complaint to the Election Commission. In that press conference he had spoken of Nitish as ‘our chief minister’, but now that could be the rein the man wants to hold. It is going to be Nitish Kumar’s tightrope walk. [caption id=“attachment_2519678” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lalu Prasad Yadav with his sons in a file photo.[/caption] That is, however, a development that could take shape over the long term, but Lalu Yadav has achieved something remarkable, though not necessarily admirable. He has now developed the Yadav clan — one he heads — as the most powerful dynasty in Bihar. In fact, after two family members – Rabri Devi and Misa Yadav — lost their bids for Lok Sabha in 2014, it was thought that it was mostly all over for him. But no. It rose sphinx-like from the ashes, and is bound to further consolidate its presence in Bihar. Soon after the swearing in ceremony, Misa Devi was seen on television screen listing the five members of the family in politics – the parents who were both chief ministers, now Tejashwi Yadav the deputy chief minister, and Tej Pratap He had run Bihar via his wife, Rabri Devi’s kitchen, so to say, when he had to vacate his chief minister’s office in 1997 when implicated in the fodder swindle. The Centre had dismissed her in February 1999, but she returned when the Vajpayee government withdrew it for her reinstatement in March the same year. She took office thrice, and on Friday watched two sons take office, one as a deputy chief minister and the other as a cabinet minister. What makes it sweeter for the Yadavs is that in the elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, of the 22 families which put up a successor to keep their lineages in politics – more aptly, get some slice of power – only seven won. Unlike others who put up several, Lalu Yadav had only two candidates in fray, Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, and the hit rate was 100 per cent. Others fared badly. Though RJD joined a rival, Nitish Kumar and his JD(U), the losses of families like the Paswans must have been delectable scores for him. In feudal set ups, the strengthening of a family is as important as winning the right to form a government. The Yadavs have nine children, of course all adults now, and when one of them forayed into cricket, it was a kind of amusing development because most thought that a cricket blazer sat ill on a person whose father took pride in buffaloes. Of the seven girls, four have been married into other political families, though three of them in Uttar Pradesh. That makes the family almost entirely political. Look at the matrimonial alliances of the family. Rajlaxmi Singh, was given in marriage to Tej Pratap Singh, an MP who is the grandnephew of Samajwadi Party’s supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav. Interestingly, the Mulayam family’s dining table could well be the parliamentary party meeting venue for the party has no non-family member in Parliament after the 2014 elections. Her sibling, Ragini Devi is married to Rahul Yadav, a son of Jitendra Yadav, who once was a Samajwadi Party MLA in UP before he switched to the Congress. Hema, is married into another political family scion, Vineet Yadav. The sixth daughter, Dhannu’s husband Chiranjeev Rao; his father is Rao Ajit Singh of Indian National Lok Dal who had been a minister in Haryana.