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Our Correspondent in Patna
The Rashtriya Janata Dal's legislature party has reposed its faith in the Rabri Devi government.
The meeting has authorised Chief Minister Rabri Devi to take suitable action against the rebels.
The RJDLP endorsed the state government at a meeting held at the chief minister's residence late on Monday evening, lasting over two hours. Though RJD leaders claim that 116 legislators attended the meeting, including some MLCs, sources in the intelligence department put the figure at 105. The RJD has a strength of 115 in the House.
Interestingly, two MLCs close to the rebel leader Dr Ranjan Yadav, Upendra Kumar Singh and Kumar Rakesh Ranjan, also attended the meeting. Minister of State Akhilesh Singh, who greeted Dr Ranjan Yadav at the airport on his arrival in Patna on Holi day, was also present at the meeting. Even the most vocal critic of the state government within the family, Sadhu Yadav, attended the meeting.
However, another minister of state, Monazir Hassan, and Samrat Chaudhary, MLA, did not attend the meeting. The welfare minister, Ramai Ram, stayed away owing to illness.
However, the rebel camp has refused to accept the big turnout in favour of Laloo Yadav as a defeat. Its leaders claim that many of their supporters took part in the meeting for strategic reasons, and that they would come out openly at the appropriate time.
On the other hand, talking to newsmen after the meeting, some MLAs charged that they were being offered Rs 5 million through a rebel legislator to switch sides.
Laloo Yadav later charged that a conspiracy was being hatched to put him behind bars, and that too in Jharkhand so that the state government is weakened and collapses. He said the rebels' dreams would soon be shattered and not a single MLA would desert the government.
He ridiculed Tekriwal's claim that the state was not developing enough, and asked just what the minister had done for 11 years, when he had held all the important portfolios, including finance.
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