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| Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav (09/03/1920-02/03/2006) |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay (31/12/1898-03/06/1974) |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay attending the 'Yadav Mahasabha' |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay addressing the gathering in the 'Yadav Mahasabha' |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay attending the Yadav Mahasabha at Gandhi Maidan, Patna |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay and Union Minister Yashwant Rao Chavan with K. B. Sahay's cabinet colleagues namely Sumitra Devi, Ambika Prasad Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav |
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| Krishna Ballabh Sahay during the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the Dumariya Ghat with Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav and S. B. Joshi. |
In 1962 Congress came back to power in Bihar albeit with a lesser majority. Binodanand Jha, the incumbent Chief Minister, successfully aligned with the Rajputs to achieve the requisite majority among MLAs and defeated K. B. Sahay in the Congress Legislative Assembly leadership elections to once again become the Chief Minister of Bihar. K. B. Sahay’s defeat was rejoiced by his adversaries who claimed that the death-knell of his political career had been sounded. Many of them even wrote off his political obituary. However, as things turned out later, K. B. Sahay proved them wrong once again.
Binodanand Jha, the wily Brahmin that he was, was very much aware that K. B. Sahay would not lie low despite his defeat. Jha had successfully organized the annual session of the All India Congress Committee at Patna in 1962 and was appreciated for his efforts. He now decided to make the final strike. He forwarded a complaint, based on the inquiry made by the State IB, of a conspiracy to kill him by feeding him with poison laden fish bought from Raj Hotel- an outlet in Agamkuan owned by Vishwanath Verma- purportedly a close confidant of K.B. Sahay. It was also alleged that the plot was hatched by Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav who was another close confidant of K. B. Sahay. Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav has mentioned in a memoir published in 1998 that the matter was got independently investigated by Jawahar Lal Nehru who deputed the then Intelligence Bureau Chief Mallick on the job to unearth the truth behind the allegation. Yadav mentions that the IB chief and the investigating officer Shukla carried out a thorough enquiry which lasted for the next couple of months and as a result of their meticulous investigation they gave him and 36 others accused of the murder of the Chief Minister a clean chit and submitted their report to the Prime Minister in which they lay bare the truth behind the conspiracy theory. Binodanand Jha’s stratagem had backfired and his Machiavellian traits were exposed before the central leadership, which waited for an appropriate moment to remove him. Hence when Kamraj Nadar, the veteran Congress leader came forward with a plan to strengthen the party by roping in leaders for organizational works related to the party which came to be known as the “Kamraj Plan”, Binodanand Jha was short-listed as one of the eight Chief Ministers to be entrusted with organizational works of the party.
Binodanand Jha did not accept the decision of the Congress High Command to replace him gracefully. A belligerent Jha advocated the candidature of Beer Chand Patel, a koeri leader for the post of Chief Minister of Bihar. On the other hand, K. B. Sahay realized that his intelligence and administrative acumen notwithstanding, he can rise in a caste driven State of Bihar only by stitching an alternative alliance. He was aware that as long as two of the three pre-dominant forward castes come together he, being a ‘Kayastha,’ had no scope whatsoever to stake a claim for the Congress leadership. The ‘Kayastha’, was the marginalized forward caste and was, therefore, no match in the face of a strong alliance between any two of the three forward castes namely the Brahmin, Rajput and the Bhumihar castes. So a crafty ‘Kayastha’ decided to challenge an equally wily ‘Maithil Brahmin’ by mobilizing the marginalized backward castes of the society namely ‘the Kurmi-the Kushwaha (Koeri) and the Yadavas’- popularly known as the ‘Triveni Sangh’ and stitched an alliance with the marginalized ‘Kayasthas’ to challenge the dominance of the ‘Brahmins-Rajput-Bhumihar’ group. Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, the upcoming Yadava leader earned the confidence of K. B. Sahay during this period and the duo came to be known as the ‘Ram-Hanuman Jodi’. At the same time, K. B. Sahay did not allow other forward casts to drift away. He mobilized the support of Anugrah Babu’s son Satyender Narayan Sinha, as well as “Young Turks’ like Swaraj Shankar Singh (also known as Bandi Shankar Singh), son of Sri Krishna Sinha who was an upcoming Bhumihar leader and along with Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, the firebrand Yadava leader defeated the Brahmin-Koeri alliance of Binodanand Jha. The rise of Yadavas, the most prominent Other Backward Caste (OBC), post-1960s was largely due to encouragement its leaders received from K. B. Sahay who brought this group into prominence in Bihar politics to check the rising influence of the other three forward castes namely the Brahmins, Bhumihars and Rajput, who never wanted a Kayastha to have a free hand in administration. K. B. Sahay took three leaders from the Yadava community in his ministry and elevated Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav to Cabinet-level minister and assigned him the important portfolio of the Public Works Department (P.W.D.).
During the period he was the Chief Minister of Bihar, K. B. Sahay attended the Yadava Mahasabha at Patna. This meeting was organized by Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav. K. B. Sahay was criticized by his adversaries for participating in such meeting. K. B. Sahay questioned the intention of the opposition leaders and gave a terse reply to them which silenced them. In an Assembly debate on 23rd March 1965, he said, ‘You question me for attending the Yadav Mahasabha but you do not question when such sabhas are organized by Bhumihars, Rajputs, Brahmins or Kayasthas. I would like you to know what I said at the meeting of the Yadavas. I assured the gathering that I have sympathy for the backward castes- irrespective of whether he is a Koeri, Kurmi or Dushaadh and I stand by what I said. A motor-car runs on four wheels and if one of the wheels is punctured it will not run. Similar is the case here. The Backward casters are one of the wheels of this society who have long been put at disadvantage and so long as they do not acquire strength the vehicle of society would not run. Congress has made effort to help the backward caste.’
Pointing towards Rajkumar Purve K. B. Sahay continued, ‘You are a Communist hence you must not interfere in such matters. It does not make any difference if Yadavas have conducted a meeting just like the one conducted by Bhumihars or Rajputs. Our respected Dr Rajendra Prasad had been the office bearer of the Kayastha Mahasabha. Sri Babu had participated in the Bhumihar Mahasabha. Hence do not accuse me of spreading casteism. You must not spit venom in the name of casteism. You must not try to create a rift in the services based on caste. Whatever you say on the floor of the House has an impact on the State. Hence, as a public figure, you must not speak irresponsibly. Several rivers flow from the Himalayas but all these rivers ultimately merge in the plains. Similarly, all the castes form the strength of the nation, the society and the Congress Party. Congress is the only party that looks after the welfare of everyone irrespective of his caste and it is the Congress where people of all caste get uniform treatment. रामचरितमानस में सीता मैया ने कहा था ‘पितृ वैभव विपुल मैं दीठा, नृपमणि मुकुट मिलहि पद पीठा’ – अभी तो सभी पार्टी और जाति के लोग काँग्रेस को ही अपना मुकुट अर्पित कर रही है। इन्हीं शब्दों के साथ मैं अपना वक्तव्य समाप्त करता हूँ।
In his memoir, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav recalls that K. B. Sahay kept a strict bifurcation of his domestic account and his political account. Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav recalls helping K.B. Sahay financially as Sri Sahay would never touch the political funds despite his hardships. After the Dinanath Pandey shoot out in 1955, K.B. Sahay gave Yadav some funds from the party account for some political purpose. While Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav gave a complete account of expenses along with a receipt, he had no receipt for the miscellaneous expense of Rs. 21/-. K. B. Sahay asked him to submit a self-certified voucher for Rs. 21/- to square up the account. Every evening K.B. Sahay would enter these expenses in a register and put his signature, arrange the vouchers in a file and check the available cash before retiring to bed. It was this register of expense that perplexed Justice Aiyer during his enquiry. He never expected a leader of such stature to maintain such extensive records of expenses.
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