Fodder Scam - End of Laloo's Chief Ministership

End of Laloo's Chief Ministership

As it became evident that Laloo would be engulfed in the scandal and its prosecution, demands for him to be removed from the chief ministership had gained momentum both from other parties, as well as within Laloo's own party, the Janata Dal. On July 5, Laloo formally parted ways with the Janata Dal and formed his own party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (or RJD), taking with him virtually all the Janata Dal legislators in the Bihar state assembly, and winning a vote of confidence in the state assembly a few days later. The RJD continued to support the coalition federal government, however. With demands for his resignation continuing to mount, on July 25, Laloo resigned from his position, but was able to install his wife, Rabri Devi as the new chief minister on the same day. On July 28, Rabri's new government won another vote of confidence in the Bihar legislature by 194-110, thanks to the Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha parties voting in alignment with the RJD.

Laloo claimed he had been instrumental in helping HD Deve Gowda become the prime minister. However, there was press speculation that Gowda held a grudge against Laloo for insisting that Gowda step down when Gowda's fledgling government ran into internal coalition squabbles, and this motivated him to push CBI Director Joginder Singh for Laloo's prosecution. Much later, in 2008, Laloo also claimed that Deve Gowda confessed, and "wept and fainted," when Laloo confronted him on inciting the CBI to pursue the prosecution. Looking retrospectively, Laloo has said that the scam had a lasting negative impact on his political career, and may have ended his prospects to one day be prime minister of India. The first major politician to demand for a CBI probe into fodder scam within the parliament was CPI leader and five times Lok Sabha member from Madhubani Bhogendra Jha who sat on a hunger strike in the well of Lok Sabha just after the news of fodder scam broke out out in early 1996. Soon after, general elections were held in which this sitting member of parliament was denied a ticket by his own party without any explicit reason and Chaturanan Mishra was given the ticket from Madhubani in spite of the fact that Mishra used to represent and work in Jharkhand for decades. Chaturanan Mishra soon became union agriculture minister and participated in a rally organized by Laloo Prasad Yadav in Patna and publicly declared that Laloo Prasad was a "Yuga Purusha". Thus, some politicians like Bhogendra Jha were also targeted because of demanding for a CBI probe and some politicians gained due to siding with Laloo Prasad. In Madhubani, three sitting members of Bihar assembly belonging to CPI were persuaded to desert CPI, and CPI was almost decimated in its one of the strongest stronghold in India there. Verbally, however, CPI continued to speak in favour of a fair trial of fodder scam, while prominent members of its national secretariat like Chaturanan Mishra who was also a union minister continued to support publicly in rallies of RJD.

There were reports that Joginder Singh had violated norms in keeping the new prime minister, IK Gujral, in the dark as he pursued the prosecution. Gujral's own new government also depended on Laloo for support in parliament, and Joginder Singh later alleged that Gujral had attempted to block the scam investigation from proceeding. On June 30, the federal government issued orders to transfer Singh out of the CBI and into the Home Ministry as a Special Secretary, which was technically a promotion but also had the effect of removing him from the investigation. There was also an alleged follow-on move to transfer UN Biswas, the regional CBI director, which led to the High Court warning that it would act to disallow any such transfer.