PATNA, July 25: The multi-crore fodder scam has finally undone Laloo Prasad Yadav, an erstwhile employee of Bihar's Animal Husbandry Department who reached his acme as Chief Minister of the State. In a surprise move shortly after the issuance of an arrest warrant against him, Yadav quit office as Chief Minister to make way for his better half.

Rabri Devi, wife of Laloo Prasad Yadav, heading a 14-member Cabinet today took over the much coveted post of Bihar Chief Minister, thus becoming the first woman in the state to take the seat.

Yadav, who earlier moved the Supreme Court to appeal against the rejection of his anticipatory bail application by the Patna High Court, sprang a surprise by getting his wife, who is not a member of either House of the State Legislature elected as leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal Legislature Party (RJDLP).

Those sworn in along with Rabri Devi include 13 members of the Laloo Cabinet. Two other members of the Cabinet who are also chargesheeted in the scam, Vidya Sagar Nishad and Bholaram Toofani, did not find berths while Shankar Prasad Tekriwal, who is away in Delhi, could not take oath.

Although the apex court today granted Yadav's plea and stayed his arrest till July 29, he yielded to all round pressure from Prime Minister I K Gujaral, opposition parties as also the United Front constituents and submitted his resignation to the Governor A R Kidwai at 3.30 pm.

With Rabri Devi -- a housewife with no experience of politics -- in his chair, Yadav, who had been asserting that he would not quit until convicted by court and that he would continue to rule from jail if arrested, may still hold complete sway over the administration.

Soon after the arrest warrant, Yadav hurriedly convened a meeting of the RJDLP at his official residence which elected his wife as the new leader. As soon as the meeting started, over 50 legislators rose to propose the name of Rabri Devi and the proposal was adopted unanimously, according to RJD spokesman Vijay Krishna.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) president Shibu Soren, also present at the meeting, committed the support of 16-member JMM (S) Legislature Party to the government, Krishna said. He added that 12 Independent MLAs present at the meeting also extended their support.

Those who were administered oath include Raghunath Jha, Jagdanand Singh, Mahavir Prasad, Illiyas Hussain, Tulsi Singh, Upendra Prasad Verma, and Shanti Devi. Meanwhile, Central Bureau of Investigation Joint Director (East) U N Biswas today indicated in the High Court that the investigating agency would shortly arrest the chargesheeted political leaders, including former Union minister C P Verma.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.