RJD Foundation Day Lalu Yadav: On its 28th foundation day, RJD's Patna office is decked up with banners and posters. The ceremony will be presided over by state president Jagdanand Singh and supremo Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav will give gurumantras to party workers. Apart from national political parties, there are many regional political parties in the country. Their strength in Lok Sabha ranges from 1 MP to 240. Here is the story of the birth of Rashtriya Janata Dal i.e. RJD.

RJD and Bihar politics

Lalu Yadav along with his close aide Jagdanand Singh founded the Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1997. RJD, which claims to be the leader of Dalits, backward classes, and Muslims, has enjoyed power in Bihar several times under the leadership of Lalu. 

The stain that is still 'deep'

Lalu Prasad Yadav formed RJD in the golden days of his political career in a crisis that suddenly came upon him and he has not been able to free himself from the sting of it even in the last phase of his life. Or it would be more correct to write that Lalu and his party have not been able to free themselves from the stain that was put on them about three decades ago. 

'Neither RJD was born then nor was there social media'

The period from 1995 to 1998 is considered to be the most unstable in Indian national politics. At that time, the party named Janata Dal was popular from North to South India. This was the period when Lalu Prasad Yadav was going through the golden phase of his career. Lalu used to be the national president of Janata Dal. He got the command of Janata Dal after SR Bommai's name came up in the Hawala scandal. At that time, the internet was in its infancy in India. Social media had not even been born. 

'Hawala handed over the Janata Dal to me'

In the name of news, there was Akashvani, Doordarshan, and a few newspapers. That was the time when door-to-door campaigning was done with folded hands. The experiment that Lalu Yadav did to become the emperor of Bihar politics at that time by forming RJD was no less than a miracle. At that time, there were almost no means of publicity. Advertisements were written on the walls. Whether among journalists or the public, Lalu Yadav used to say in a jovial way while chewing tobacco, 'Hawala handed over the Janata Dal to me.'

When Lalu formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal on 5 July 1997, he was the national president of the Janata Dal as well as the Chief Minister of Bihar, and the icing on the cake was that the leader of his party Janata Dal was the Prime Minister of the country. What could be a better golden period than this in politics for anyone? But during this period, the CBI decided to file a charge sheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam. Even Lalu himself would not have thought that this would become the biggest tragedy of his life.

Although the file of the CBI investigation of Lalu Prasad's involvement in the fodder scam was opened during the 13-day government of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the work of taking it forward was done during the government of HD Deve Gowda, whose party's name is still similar to the name of RJD.

Political experts of the country believe that HD Deve Gowda, like Manmohan Singh, had become an accidental Prime Minister due to circumstances but due to his low popularity, he felt some complex about the popular leaders of that time. It is said that first he got Hegde removed and then he found a way to rein in Lalu Yadav.

Former PM Inder Kumar Gujral has mentioned in his autobiography Matters of Discretion that Deve Gowda did not like Lalu. Despite this, Lalu not only saved his existence at that time but also succeeded in declaring himself the so-called leader of some sections in Bihar.

Today Lalu is ill. He is alive with the help of his daughter's kidney. RJD has won only 4 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Tejashwi Yadav looks after the work of RJD. In such a situation, today on the foundation day of RJD, while Lalu Yadav can give the mantra to take the party to the next level, Tejashwi Yadav can also give a new roar from the party office in Patna.