Stung by the JD(U) allegations that Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav gave jobs to people in lieu of land, the minister’s men in Rail Bhavan spent most part of last week digging out old files to find out “irregularities” committed during Nitish Kumar’s tenure as railway minister. Explicit instructions were issued to officials of the Railways’ Vigilance Directorate to put all work on hold and fish out incriminating material from Nitish’s tenure so as to arm RJD leaders to launch a counter attack in Patna. Lalu’s men met with some initial success too with Rail Bhavan mandarins coming out with irregularities in appointment of 231 people during Nitish’s regime. However, to Lalu’s disappointment, that was nowhere close to the number on his side of the table.