Siwan: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday visited the ancestral home of gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin before leaving for a rally with his wife Hena Shahab in Siwan, where the writ of the incarcerated leader still runs large.

Spearheading the second leg of his Samvidhan Bachao Nyay Yatra, largely aimed against the BJP, the leader of opposition in the state signalled with the move that he would continue to follow the footsteps of his father and RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav, considering Shahabuddin's influence over minority votes in the state.

Before his conviction in the fodder scam, Lalu Yadav, amid a lot of hue and cry, had named Hena Shahab as a member of RJD's working committee. Shahab contested but lost the last Lok Sabha election to BJP's Om Prakash Yadav.

By all calculations Tejashwi has decided to field her again in 2019, one of the RJD spokesmen told News18.

"That's why he is toeing the line of his father Lalu Yadav who always backed Shahabuddin, even after he was shown giving a verbal dose to the Siwan SP on the instructions of the Don in a sting operation last year. His steadfast support to Shahabuddin has played a key role in getting their support," he said.

Shahabuddin and his henchmen had murdered two sons of Chanda Babu in 2004 by drenching them in acid at the same Pratappur residence where Tejashwi held a closed-door meeting with Hena and party supporters on Monday. Shahabuddin and his three associates were sentenced to life in that case.

Chanda Babu later became an icon of resistance against Mohammad Shahabuddin as he continued his legal fight defying alleged threats from the gangster’s men. His third son, who was an eyewitness to the case, was also killed in 2014. While the opposition BJP hailed his courage and many of its leaders visited him, the RJD kept its distance from the family.

As Tejashwi discussed poll strategy and well-being of Shahabuddin's family with Hena and other party supporters at her residence, media was kept outside the residential premises.

Flanked by Hena, Tejashwi vowed to root out the BJP from the state in the next assembly election while addressing a public rally at Gandhi Maidan. A large crowed, by some accounts more than the BJP managed in a recently held Atal Yuva Sankalp Sammelan attended by Smriti Irani, assembled to hear the Lalu scion who attacked RSS more than his bete noir Nitish Kumar.