Four months ago when Lalu Prasad reluctantly accepted Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate, the RJD chief drew an analogy between snake poison and his decision, saying, “jehar peene ko bhi taiyyar hain (willing to consume even poison).”
Today, it was Nitish who had to tacitly drink poison when he allowed Lalu’s younger son Tejaswi Yadav, a non-matriculate, to become No 2 in his 28-member cabinet. Political observers treat this as Lalu’s style to extract his pound of flesh when he ensured that his two sons Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap, both debutant MLAs, were sworn in as ministers.
Tejaswi, who won from Raghopur defeating BJP’s Satish Yadav, took oath immediately after Nitish thereby triggering speculation that he might be crowned as the deputy chief minister.