In a setback to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, former Bihar minister and the party's national general secretary Shyam Rajak resigned from the party citing his disillusionment with the current rung of leadership.
Rajak, a 70-year-old veteran Dalit leader, is likely to return to the Janata Dal (United), four years after his expulsion in 2020.
“I am resigning from the post of party’s national general secretary and also from its primary membership,” he said in his resignation letter addressed to RJD president and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav.
“Mein shatranj ka shoukeen nahi tha, isliye dhoka kha gaya. Aap mohre chal rahe the, mein rishtedaari nibha raha tha (I was not good at chess, so I was betrayed. You were playing your moves, I kept maintaining our relationship).” he added, signing off with a verse.
Who is Shyam Rajak?
In his roughly three-decade-long journey, Rajak has been closely associated with both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar – two of the most prominent leaders from Bihar to have emerged from the 1974 movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan.
Shyam Rajak began his political career with Lalu Yadav's party in 1995 when he successfully contested his first election on an RJD ticket from the Phulwari Assembly seat. He went on to represent the constituency six times, and as a minister in the Rabri Devi as well as the Nitish cabinets.
Rajak, who hails from the Dhobi caste, emerged from the 1974 JP movement and aligned himself with Lalu Yadav following the formation of the RJD. Once seen as among Lalu’s closest confidantes, Rajak found himself sidelined with the emergence of Tejashwi Yadav as the leader.
A history of flip-flops
In 2009, Rajak resigned from the RJD and joined the JD(U), establishing himself as a key ally of Nitish Kumar. He also served as the president of the All India Dhobi Federation and held a ministerial position in Kumar's government from 2019 to 2020.
However, in the run-up to the 2020 Assembly elections, Rajak rebelled against the JD(U), leading to his expulsion from the party in August 2020. He then rejoined the RJD and was reappointed as the national general secretary, a post he held prior to his exit from the party.
In 2024, history came full circle as Rajak resigned from the RJD again on Thursday.
‘Sidelined by the party’
Shortly after his induction into the RJD, Rajak faced public criticism from Tejashwi, a leader he has never seen eye to eye. The criticism served as a signal of the turbulent stay that Rajak would have in the RJD.
Having returned to the RJD in the run-up to the 2020 Assembly elections, Rajak was denied a ticket from his bastion Phulwari. The RJD opted to leave the seat for the CPI(ML) that won the seat.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, he wanted to contest from either Samastipur or Jamui, but was again not fielded by the party.
"The man, who used to hold sway during Lalu Prasad’s heydays, was part of Ram-Shyam duo, along with Ram Kripal Yadav (currently with the BJP). But under Tejashwi’s leadership, he had little role to play. He felt marginalised and decided to quit,” The Indian Express quoted an RJD source as saying.
However, Rajak's disillusionment reached tipping point when it did not consider him for a berth in the state Legislative Council in 2022. Subsequently, he fancied his chances of getting a ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“But then RJD decided to field Archana Ravidas from Jamui. This left Rajak with exploring option of another reserved seat of Samastipur that was allotted to ally Congress. He had since been cooling his heels in RJD, looking to quit the party sooner than later," a leader close to him told IE.
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