You spent more than two months in jail. Do you find your support eroded after your stay there?

No. There is no erosion, instead I have uprooted my opposition. It was not my first visit to jail. Since the agitation led by Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, I have visited jails several times. But this time, my experience was totally different. I spent 71 days inside with thousands of prisoners, including those involved in heinous crimes. It was my rebirth. I have decided to launch a campaign to clean the jails in Bihar.

There is an allegation that the lives of the witnesses in the fodder scam cases are in danger and many of them have already been eliminated.

Give me just an example of the involvement of any RJD activist in the deaths. If theywere killed, it does not mean that Laloo Yadav was trying to eliminate the witnesses. It is the responsibility of the police and the investigating officers to probe the matter. No one is above the law and I have strong faith in judiciary.

Is there any threat to the Rabri Devi government now?

The Rabri Devi government faces no threat. Her government is stable even if Congress withdraws support. Unfortunately, some Congressmen, who have not won elections for over two decades, are tarnishing the image of her government and misleading both the State Governor Sunder Singh Bhadari and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Extending or withdrawing support is a Congress problem. They are free to do what they want.

So, the RJD will not have any electoral arrangement with the Congress.

There is no question of making any alliance with any political party as long as Laloo Yadav is there. The RJD is competent enough to take care of the poor, downtrodden, Dalits, backwards and minorities.

The Congress isresponsible for the political mess at the Centre. If the Congress had acted, the scenario would have been different.

But the Samata Party is widening its base in Bihar.

The opposition parties, especially the BJP and the Samata, have tried every trick but success has eluded them. Last year, BJP appointed Nand Kishore Yadav as its state unit president to counter the RJD's popularity among the Yadavs. But nothing happened. The biggest upset was the defeat of Samata Party state president Raghunath Jha. His defeat has sealed the political career of both Jha and the Samata. The Muslims and Yadavs are solidly behind the RJD. I am not in a hurry. Let them claim to have their base in Bihar, but in the next Assembly election, they will have to forfeit their security.

Development work in the state has come to a standstill, government employees have not been paid salaries for several months, there is a sense of anarchy... How will the RJD ensure that the people will stay with it?

To some extent, Ido agree. But do you think that the state government is solely responsible for it? The state is facing a serious financial problem. It has knocked the doors of the Centre several times, but in vain. Forty per cent of its population live below the poverty line with a per capita income half the national average. The state's population is growing alarmingly. The state requires an additional 2.73 lakh tonnes food, 200.3 lakh metres of cloth, 3.13 lakh of houses and 3.89 lakh jobs every year. Tell me, can the state government alone be able to meet these requirements? However, I am sure that the people of the state is with the RJD.

The Governor has sent several reports to the Centre about the deteriorating law and order.

The law and order situation is much better in Bihar compared to the BJP-ruled states in the country. Tell me, what does he (the Governor) know about the state? He is a BJP-RSS man trying to tarnish the image of the state. He is doing his job and let him do it. But we will not allowanyone, especially when he is holding a constitutional position, to create panic in the state to get political mileage.

How do you see the proposed Third Front?

We have given the responsibility of holding talks with other leaders and reuniting them to Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha president Mulayam Singh Yadav. He is working hard and I am sure that all secular parties would come together to fight the communal forces in the country.