Stay on arrest dampens ouster campaign

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, MAY 12. The ruling RJD is jubilant over the Supreme Court granting an interim stay on the execution of the arrest warrants against its supremo, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, among others, as it not only dampened the oust-Chief Minister campaign of the expelled MPs but also scored a point against the CBI.

The apex court's ruling was crucial on these two counts as the expelled MPs arrived here today, as planned, to launch their campaign to pull down the Government within a fortnight, while the CBI's move was seen as an attempt to pre-empt the Patna High Court from hearing on Monday the petition filed by Mr. Yadav challenging the jurisdiction of the special court in accepting the chargesheet and issuing arrest warrants against him.

The expelled MPs, who have floated the RJD (Democratic), arrived here today to a rousing reception. Though there was a good crowd to welcome their leader, Dr. Ranjan Prasad Yadav, at the airport, the number of MLAs supporting them seemed to have dwindled as only three of them were present.

Dr. Yadav, who arrived here for the first time after his expulsion from the RJD, was taken in an open jeep to the house of one of his supporters where he talked to the press, briefly though. He is scheduled to hold a formal press conference tomorrow.

While he evaded questions pertaining to the support of MLAs, Dr. Yadav stressed that the fight would be to the finish and that he would take his movement to the villages. He said he would not rest till he pulled down the Rabri Devi Government.

But as events unfolded, Dr. Yadav might not have bargained for the Supreme Court's relief coming Mr. Laloo Yadav's way, in particular because his imprisonment was crucial to their strategy for wooing away MLAs and effecting a split in the RJD. It remains to be seen if the expelled MPs will stick to their game plan or revise it in the light that the RJD president is unlikely to go to jail in the immediate future.

The RJD spokesman, Mr. Shivanand Tiwari, maintained that Dr. Yadav had no existence in the State and that the MLAs were solidly behind the leadership and there was no threat to the Rabri Devi Government.

Mr. Tiwari was more severe on the CBI, accusing it of indulging in malpractices with the ulterior motive of ``fixing'' Mr. Yadav, rather than investigating the fodder scam case. He objected to the allegedly sneaky manner in which the CBI had obtained a date for hearing its petition without giving notice to the respondents. He also alleged that the petition was not on today's list of cases to come up for hearing before the apex court. He asserted that it was by a mere chance that he had come to know about the CBI's move and alerted Mr. Yadav's lawyers who vehemently opposed the CBI and extracted an interim relief, failing which the CBI would have had things its way pre-empting the High Court's hearing on Monday.

Mr. Tiwari alleged that CBI officials were biased and that the RJD would translate the Dorai Commission report and distribute it in the villages to tell the people how the agency had been misused in even attempting to call the Army to arrest Mr. Yadav.

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