Janata Dal and formed his own party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (or RJD), taking with him virtually all the Janata Dal legislators in the Bihar state assembly, and winning a vote of confidence in the state assembly a few days later. The RJD continued to support the coalition federal government, however. With demands for his resignation continuing to mount, on 25 July, Lalu resigned from his position, but was able to install his wife, Rabri Devi as the new chief minister on the same day. On 28 July 1997, Rabri's new government won another vote of confidence in the Bihar legislature by 194–110, thanks to the Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha parties voting in alignment with the RJD. Lalu claimed he had been instrumental in helping HD Deve Gowda become the prime minister. However, there was press speculation that Gowda held a grudge against Lalu for insisting that Gowda step down when Gowda's fledgling government ran into internal coalition squabbles, and this motivated him to push CBI Director Joginder Singh for Lalu's prosecution. Much later, in 2008, Lalu also claimed that Deve Gowda confessed, and "wept and fainted," when Lalu confronted him on inciting the CBI to pursue the prosecution. Looking retrospectively, Lalu has said that the scam had a lasting negative impact on his political career, and may have ended his prospects to one day be prime minister of India. There were reports that Joginder Singh had violated norms in keeping the new prime minister, IK Gujral, in the dark as he pursued the prosecution. Gujral's own new government also depended on Lalu for support in parliament, and Joginder Singh later alleged that Gujral had attempted to block the scam investigation from proceeding. On 30 June, the federal government issued orders to transfer Singh out of the CBI and into the Home Ministry as a Special Secretary, which was technically a promotion but also had the effect of removing him from the investigation. There was also an alleged follow-on move to transfer U. N. Biswas, the regional CBI director, which led to the High Court warning that it would act to disallow any such transfer. Prosecution As the CBI discovered further evidence over the following years, it filed additional cases related to fraud and criminal conspiracy based on specific criminal acts of illegal withdrawals from the Bihar treasury. Most new cases filed after the division of Bihar state (into