Lalu's blame game cuts no ice

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is already feeling the effect of his electoral defeat in the Bihar assembly polls vis-a ""vis his influence over the UPA government at the Centre.

According to top sources in the government, the RJD chief has been told categorically that there would be no move to drop steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan from the Union Council of Ministers.

Sources confirm that Lalu Prasad, in the immediate aftermath of the Bihar defeat laid the blame squarely at LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan's door.

He demanded that Paswan be dropped from the Cabinet since he was responsible for the fractured alliance of the UPA in the state and its dismal performance. "He met both Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press this point home," said a senior minister.

Both leaders however told him that they had no truck with the plan. "The Congress president told Lalu Prasad that the UPA coalition had to be strengthened and not depleted, and the lesson from Bihar was that this be done. She added that since Paswan had not changed his stance from Februray to November, and he had not been dropped in February itself, then what would be the point of dropping him now," added the minister.

It is no secret that the RJD's defeat in Bihar has lessened the almost vice-like grip it held the government in, since Lalu Prasad will need the Central Government in case Nitish Kumar decides to get vindictive with him. Paswan's stance was also in part abetted by the Congress which played him off against Lalu Prasad to great effect.

"This is just the beginning of Lalu 's coming to terms with the fact that he needs the Central Government as much as it needs him, and his days of dictating terms to the Centre are over," added the minister with scarcely hidden glee.