Lok Sabha elections of 1989…
Actually, the uproar had been going on for the last two years i.e. 1987. There was an uproar across the country over the allegations of scam of Bofors guns and submarines. By rebelling against Rajiv Gandhi’s government, Defense Minister VP Singh had adopted his own political line. He was on foot march across the country as a guardian of honesty. Slogans were raised in every meeting – He is not a king but a fakir, this is the destiny of India…
The Janata Dal family had also come out fully in support of VP Singh. Lalu Yadav was rising rapidly in Bihar. The opposition front was fully confident that this time Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi would lose its support base due to the heat of Bofors. It was in this environment that the general elections of 1989 were held.
Lalu Yadav was elected MP from Chapra in Bihar in this election of 1989. He mentions many unheard stories of this period in his autobiography ‘Gopalganj to Raisina’. Lalu Yadav writes-
‘V. The National Front under the chairmanship of P. Singh ousted the Congress led by Rajiv Gandhi after the general elections. Devi Lal became Deputy Prime Minister in the National Front government, which had multiple parties, and was supported from outside by the BJP and the Left. This was a unique political system, in which both leftists and rightists were on the same page to support the government. We were in Devilal’s camp. But differences started soon after government formation. Devi Lal created uncomfortable situations for V.P. Singh all the time. In the end, Devi Lal was seen as a villain by both the political system and the media. However, the fact is that Devi Lal started out as a public leader without the ambition of becoming a Prime Minister. The posts did not attract him. He also knew that V.P. Singh, who had rebelled against Rajiv on corruption issues and as a result, gained a public image and was the preferred candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
Due to repeated instigation of people, Devi Lal also gradually started getting influenced by this and started dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister. And in this process he went far away from V.P. Singh. Despite the overwhelming support to Devi Lal, I supported V.P. Singh for the post of Prime Minister. I must say here that as a party leader in Bihar, V.P. Singh was not very supportive of my candidature, which would have opened the possibility of my becoming the Chief Minister. There were some solid reasons behind my decision regarding V.P. Singh. V.P. Singh was such a face which the country had accepted against Congress. Second, he defeated Sunil Shastri, son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. And third, Devi Lal was seen primarily as a rural leader and was not acceptable across the country.
After resolving the issue of Prime Minister’s post, Nitish Kumar (newly elected MP from Barh) and I tried to become ministers. We used to roam around the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wearing our best kurta-pyjama, hoping to attract attention. However, his initial ambition to become a Union Minister soon faded. My heart was in Bihar, and I resolved to dedicate my career to my home state, which had given me so much.
(Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav/ Photo credit: X@TejYadav14)
In the March 1990 assembly elections, the Janata Dal-led alliance defeated the Congress and won the 324-member Bihar Assembly with a majority. I became the leader of the opposition in the assembly and I gave up the idea of going into national politics. I returned to Patna to stake claim for the post of Chief Minister. I thought that being a pioneer in the JP movement and extremely popular among the people of Bihar, I was best suited to take over the situation and bring about revolutionary change in Bihar, which was mired in backwardness, feudalism and deprivation. Moreover, as the leader of the opposition, I considered myself a natural contender for the post of Chief Minister after victory. But it wasn’t as easy as I thought. An election was to be held for the post of leader of the Janata Dal Legislative Party. It was only after defeating two stalwarts, Ramsundar Das and Raghunath Jha, as leader of the Bihar Party Legislative Party in March 1990 that I finally became the Chief Minister.
I was elected Chief Minister after defeating two senior leaders in the election of leader of the legislative party. I was 42 years old and had by then begun to understand how the political game was played.
(VP Singh taking oath as Prime Minister)
(Lalu Yadav/Photo Credit: Getty)
Things were not that easy. I had the support of Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, while George Fernandes, who came as an observer in the election of Janata Dal MLA leader, and some other leaders tried to create some complications. He was working behind the scenes, but he did not come forward and oppose me. But they could not succeed. Chandrashekhar and Sharad Yadav were close to Devi Lal in those days and they supported my candidature and I was selected to take over the leadership of the state government.
But after this a completely new and completely unexpected problem emerged. I don’t know for what reasons Governor Mohammad Yunus Salim was not ready to administer oath to me, even though I was the elected leader of the party legislature party. I used to go to him every day wearing starched kurta-pajama with the hope that an auspicious occasion had come. But they were constantly being delayed. He even left for Delhi without inviting me for the oath of office as Chief Minister. I was becoming restless and worried. After becoming the leader, my fellow MLAs were strongly supporting me. I failed to understand this delay of the Governor.
I urged him that he had no other option to get me sworn in. After trying all the methods, finally Salim was left with no other option, then he fixed the date of March 10, 1990 and I took charge as the Chief Minister on that day.
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