Snubbed on Defence, Laloo begins flexing his ally muscle

But before leaving, Laloo did say that the option of coming into the government was open. He said he was going for wider consultations with party legislators and Chief Minister Rabri Devi.

But senior RJD member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was quoted as saying that the party had left it to Laloo to take a decision.

Laloo’s biggest grudge is that what was being offered — he wanted Home but a legal luminary advised him that this would arm the BJP with an issue since there were cases pending against him and he should instead settle for Agriculture or Rural Development — neither matched his stature nor his party’s long and unconditional support to the Congress. The comparison is with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party which has been in and out of alliance with the Congress. Also, the NCP bagged only nine seats while the RJD is Congress’ largest ally with 21 MPs.

That status also prompted some of the RJD MPs — mostly those that expect to be left out of RJD’s ministerial candidates — to suggest during the meeting that Laloo should play the ‘‘ringmaster’’ role like Chandrababu Naidu during the NDA rule.

They suggested that the RJD should provide external support to extract more for Bihar, as did Naidu’s TDP. This then became the RJD refrain. Members, including Laloo, told the media that Bihar’s development was more dear than cabinet berths.

Once in Patna, Laloo repeated that his only concern was getting Bihar its due share from the Centre.

‘‘We fought the elections on the slogan of the NDA government’s neglect of our state. People will ask us, what will a new government supported by us deliver. Therefore, we have demanded a firm commitment in the CMP for the special treatment of Bihar and other underdeveloped states such as those of the North East and Orissa.’’

Asked if he was raising the issue of Bihar’s development to bring pressure on Congress, Laloo shot back: ‘‘Why should I pressurise the Congress. It has only 145 seats. The rest are allies and we are the second biggest party.’’

Laloo said the people of Bihar should ‘‘feel the change of guard’’ at the Centre. ‘‘We have been accusing the NDA, and unless we get firm assurances from the new government on matters of Bihar’s development, it will be difficult for us,’’ he said.