‘Will Not Be Vacated, Come What May’: RJD Says Rabri Devi Won’t Leave Circular Road Bungalow | Politics News

Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi (Photo: PTI)

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Wednesday asserted that former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi will not vacate the government bungalow she has occupied for nearly two decades. The party’s Bihar unit president, Mangani Lal Mandal, issued the defiant statement a day after the state Building Construction Department directed Rabri Devi to move to 39, Hardinge Road, the residence designated for the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.

Speaking to reporters, Mandal declared that the bungalow at 10, Circular Road, located opposite the chief minister’s official residence, “will not be vacated, come what may.” He alleged the decision was driven by political hostility, saying it “smacks of malice the ruling NDA harbours for our leader Lalu Prasad.” Mandal questioned why Nitish Kumar waited two decades to earmark a bungalow for the post and argued that the government should have retained 10, Circular Road given that both Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi had served as chief ministers.

State minister Santosh Kumar Suman said the bungalow had been allotted earlier under a now-scrapped provision granting former chief ministers a lifelong residence. “That provision had to be scrapped following an Allahabad High Court ruling a few years ago. In any case, we are not depriving Rabri Devi of the bungalow. Moreover, the government has the right to decide which bungalow should be allotted to whom,” he said.

Mandal, however, accused Nitish Kumar of acting to appease the BJP, claiming the JD(U) leader had been unsettled by his ally’s assertiveness. “Nitish Kumar has taken the decision to curry favour with the BJP… knowing the BJP’s ill-will towards Lalu ji, Nitish Kumar has tried to appease Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ilk by insulting our leader,” he said.

He added that the NDA should not underestimate the RJD despite its electoral setbacks. “The ruling NDA should remember that we may be in the opposition, but in the recent assembly elections, we got more votes than any of its constituents… So they better not try to belittle us,” Mandal said.

Reflecting on the party’s drop from 75 seats to 25, Mandal insisted the RJD’s defeat was circumstantial. “We did not lose the elections. It was the system that worked against us… We must not think that we have lost,” he said, citing what he described as the BJP-led NDA’s “enormous resources” compared to the RJD’s campaign.