Hena Shahab met with Lalu-Tejashwi in Patna.
Patna, August 8: Hena Shahab, the wife of late Bahubali leader Mohammad Shahabuddin met with RJD national president Lalu Prasad Yadav and leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav in Patna late on Wednesday night.
According to a close source of RJD, the one-and-half-hour meeting was held in the residence of RJD MLC Vinod Jaiswal in his Boring Road residence and the meeting between them was successful. Hena Shahab may join RJD soon.
This was the third meeting between Hena Shahab and Lalu Prasad Yadav post-Lok Sabha election result 2024.
The relationship between the late Shahabuddin’s wife Hena Shahab and the Lalu family has not been cordial in the last few years. Before the Lok Sabha election, Shahabuddin’s wife had distanced herself from the RJD and Lalu Prasad Yadav.
She contested as an independent candidate from the Siwan Lok Sabha constituency. On the other hand, RJD made former Bihar Assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary the party’s candidate from Siwan. However, the main contest was between JD (U) candidate Vijay Laxmi Kushwaha and independent Hena Shahab who later lost the election.
After the Lok Sabha election was over, efforts of RJD’s top leadership began to re-include her in the party.
Sources have said that both sides want to shake hands with each other as they have been deprived of success in the past assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
From the RJD perspective, the party’s top leaders want the inclusion of Heena Shahab to secure the minority vote banks in its favor. When Mohammad Shahabuddin was alive, he was influential in Siwan, Gopalganj, Saran and Muslim-dominant Seemanchal districts like Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar districts of Bihar.
By bringing her into his fold, Lalu Prasad Yadav aims to reinforce the MY equation, a traditional vote bank of the party.
Also Read: Hena Shahab slammed RJD leaders for ignorance of the Shahabuddin family.
On the other hand, Hena Shahab repeatedly failed in the previous elections.
After Shahabuddin went to jail, she contested the Siwan Lok Sabha seat on the RJD symbol in 2009, 2014 and 2019 but lost. After Shahabuddin’s death, she distanced herself from the Lalu family and decided to contest the 2024 election as an independent candidate. However, this time too she was defeated. Her electoral losses have left her with limited alternatives.
The entire exercise is taking place in view of the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025.
EOM.