Is Tejashwi Yadav on his way to replace Nitish as Bihar CM?

While Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has embarked on a countrywide tour in a bid to fulfil his prime ministerial ambitions, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad apparently is nursing his long-cherished dream of anointing his son and deputy chief minister, Tejashwi Yadav, on the state's top seat. And in between the two dreams, Bihar is sliding into lawlessness.

Nitish's prime ministerial ambition and the return of Jungle Raj suits the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). While Nitish is eyeing the PM's chair through his nationwide prohibition drive and his call for an RSS-free India, Lalu seemingly sees in it a golden opportunity to instal his son Tejashwi as the next Bihar chief minister.

A strange but interesting politics is playing out within the RJD. While Lalu and Tejashwi are seen supporting and defending Nitish on all contentious issues, other senior RJD leaders are taking a diametrically opposite stand and openly hitting out hard at the chief minister. However, can the comparatively junior leaders in a family-centric, single-person dominated regional party like the RJD just take a different stand without a nod from their top boss - Lalu Prasad?

Be it on the issue of the two murders - of 19-year-old schoolboy Aditya Sachdeva in Gaya and journalist Rajdeo Ranjan in Siwan - which took place within a week of each other, or Nitish's venture to position himself as the opposition's PM candidate, Lalu and Tejashwi have defended the chief minister.

However, on both these counts, RJD's other senior leaders have lashed out at Nitish and hurt his image.

Responding to the murder of the senior Siwan journalist on May 13, Tejashwi shockingly made light of it and said such incidents are taking place all over the country. Lalu, who has been generally been silent on the two murders which have shaken the conscience of the nation, condemned the incident but claimed that the perpetrators, "howsoever mighty they are, won't go scot-free".

In contrast to the tone and tenor of Lalu and Tejashwi, RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin echoed the sentiments of the opposition BJP and alleged that there was no "sushasan" (good governance) in Bihar as "Maha Jungle Raj" prevails there. Incidentally, Nitish is also addressed to as "Sushasan Babu".

Taslimuddin went to the extent of calling Nitish a "mad man" and ridiculing his national-level venture. "The chief minister is wandering everywhere trying to cash in on the liquor ban in Bihar. He has gone mad to think that he will become the prime minister of the country," the five-term MP said.

The contradictory stances of Lalu-Tejashwi vis-a-vis senior party leaders on the issue of Nitish's PM ambition also highlights some kind of a tacit understanding between them.

On the one hand, Lalu and Tejashwi have supported Nitish for the PM's post. "Are there any two ways about it? If any person from Bihar is in the race to become PM, I will support him. If Nitish becomes a PM candidate, we will support him," Lalu is on record saying this. Tejashwi too backed his father in supporting Nitish as PM. "Why not? He (Nitish) is honest and has a clean image," was his reply when asked on the issue.

However, Taslimuddin said Nitish is not a "PM material" and he is "day-dreaming of becoming the prime minister".

On his part, former Union minister and RJD's vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, considered quite close to Lalu, took a dig at Nitish's prohibition policy and said the chief minister "first took liquor to every household in Bihar and is now on an overdrive to enforce a ban on liquor" to fulfil his "political ambition".

He also censured the CM's bid to become the undisputed leader of the opposition and said, "Nitish looks to be an obstacle to the possible unity of secular forces for Mission 2019. His selfishness is weakening the unity of the grand alliance. He has been projecting himself as a leader."

There seems to be clear pattern in the double-forked treatment to Nitish by the RJD top brass. While trying to egg on Nitish to go and take a shot at the national-level politics, the party is simultaneously deriding him and proving him a failure in ruling Bihar and making a case for Tejashwi's upgradation.

This also leads one to think whether the RJD has given a free hand to its supporters to create lawlessness in the state to oust Nitish. Be it Bindi Yadav, father of Rocky Yadav  - the main accused in the murder of Aditya - or Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is being linked to the gunning down of Ranjan, both are considered to be rather close to Lalu.

Gaining notoriety during the 15-year rule of Lalu and Rabri between 1990 and 2005, Bindi had contested the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections on an RJD ticket, though unsuccessfully.

On the other hand, Shahabuddin, a former RJD MP serving jail term for killing two persons, is a member of the party's national executive, along with Lalu's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi. As Shahabuddin could not contest because of being a convict, his wife Heena Shahab had fought the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Siwan, though she lost to BJP's Om Prakash Yadav.

Lalu's low priority for the killings of Aditya and Ranjan also points  to the fact that he still does not wish to drop his criminal supporters like Bindi or Shahabuddin. On the one hand, the RJD boss has not just visited the house of the video journalist Indra Deo Yadav who was killed in Jharkhand on May 12, but also alleged that there was "lawlessness" in the BJP-ruled state. On the other hand, he has not yet bothered to meet the bereaved family members of either Aditya Sachdeva or Rajdeo Ranjan in his own state.

There seems to be an attempt by the RJD leaders to defame Nitish and hold him responsible for the increasing law and order problem in the state. This will be used against Nitish to push for Tejashwi as his successor. The question, therefore, is: Will Bihar see Nitish being replaced by Tejashwi as chief minister sooner than later?