It is like a rebirth for the maverick Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad. Out of power since 2005 and ineligible to contest elections, Lalu and his party proved their importance in Bihar Assembly elections by propelling Nitish Kumar and Mahagathbandhan to power in a high-stakes elections which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the National Democratic Alliance charge.
For 10 years Lalu had waited and on November 8 it was finally over. He had ruled Bihar either himself or through his wife Rabri Devi since 1990 before he was thrown out by the Janata Dal United-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in November 2005. He suffered another huge blow five years later when his party won only 22 seats in the Nitish wave.
His conviction and jail term in a fodder scam case came as a double whammy after the loss of power in Bihar. The jail term also meant Lalu’s disqualification from electoral politics for six years. Just like Nitish, it was all downhill for Lalu in 2014 elections when his party won only four seats. Nitish’s JDU fared worse winning only two.
But a common rival in Prime Minister Narendra Modi forced Lalu and Nitish to join hands after parting ways in 1994. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections proved to Lalu and Nitish that they were doomed if they contested separately and so began the preliminary work for an alliance which was finally sealed just a few months before the Assembly elections.
Lalu’s formidable Muslim-Yadav (MY) vote bank was under strain with many Yadav youngsters gravitating towards the NDA during the last Lok Sabha elections. The loss in 2005 and 2010 had weakened Lalu’s hold over RJD and many leaders had moved to greener pastures. It seemed that the Lalu brand of politics revolving around the backward-forward polarisation was almost over.
Once the Mahagathbandhan was sealed, Lalu jumped into the electoral battle like there was no tomorrow. He was gifted his pet issue of being a OBC messiah on a platter by none other than RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and made full use of it. Bhagwat’s statement of a rethink on reservations for the other backward castes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes on September 20 turned the election on its head forcing the BJP on to the backfoot.
In rallies after rallies, Lalu called upon the backward castes to unite and vote for Nitish Kumar. He was the powerhouse that kept the Mahagathbandhan in the fight.
And November 8 proved that Lalu is back, and back with a bang.
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