Too soon to write him off, feel supporters
RJD supporters look at past instances of leaders contesting, and winning, from behind bars to keep alive the hope of a similar resurrection of their chief in jail again
RJD workers look at instances of leaders winning polls from behind bars to keep hopes of a resurrection alive.
PATNA : In 1977, posters of a jailed George Fernandes post Emergency made such an impact that he won the Muzaffarpur parliamentary seat in absentia by a huge margin to become the Union minister for industries in the Janata Party government.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) sympathisers and party workers believe the party would be strengthened with their leader Lalu Prasad in jail.
The confidence may be infectious for the cadre but it’s difficult to predict the result of Prasad’s fresh incarceration yet. For, there are three more cases lined up.
The RJD had risen like a colossus, decimating the Congress in 1990 and reaching its apogee in 1995, making a clean sweep with over 167 out of the then 324 seats in undivided Bihar.
The huge win was cemented in the backdrop of a huge social change, sparked off by his rise — ‘the son of a charvaha (shepherd)’ — as Prasad himself described itand upturning the upper-caste hegemony in governance, services and politics itself.
It was a ‘plebeian’ government, led by the poor with the strength of 15% of the Yadavs and Muslims at its core. The ‘MY’ combination, weighing in with 28% population, assured Yadav would be unchallenged for some time. The combination put an end to communal riots too.
Prasad’s rise as a ‘commoners CM’ made for signature politics and a churning of the caste cauldron. However, what added to the hype was his mannerism, sometimes bordering on the comical and a careful cultivation of a language tempered in local dialects.
His rise spawned many fables — invented, added and propelled by people themselves. In his shabby treatment of bureaucrats and high police officers, they saw a revenge being exacted from those in power and created a new bond. However, Prasad’s catapulting to national fame rode on the singular act of stopping LK Advani’s Rath Yatra to Ayodhya in 1990 at Samastipur, propelling the former as the frontline ‘secular’ leader whom Muslims could trust. Thereafter, it has been downhill, especially after the fodder scam was reported in 1996 in Chaibasa treasury and by 1997, it had started sullying his carefully built image.
The man who spawned films, Diwali crackers and various merchandise across the board after his name, however, has larger worries today.
As in 1995 and 2005, when tall Janata Dal leaders such as Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes left him, there is fear that the party could disintegrate. But RJD stalwarts like Jagtanand and Raghuvansh Narain Singh believe “it cannot die”.
“Laluji may be behind the prison, but his counsel will always prevail. His following can only increase,” party spokesman Manoj Jha said, “We have just been strengthened”.
Stalwarts like Singh are not the happiest at the mention of Prasad’s younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav leading the party. But the majority of the party’s MLAS are still dependent on ‘Lalu waves’ to win their constituencies. The question in front of them is this: Can Tejashwi emerge as a winnable mascot?
Prasad’s family itself is a bunch of ambitious individuals, with eldest daughter Misa Bharti and elder son Tej Pratap Yadav gunning for bigger roles.
“The situation is such, that many RJD leaders are in touch with us, though some do not subscribe to our party philosophy. We cannot accommodate them all,” said JD(U)’S RCP Singh last week.
If Prasad is absent from the state’s political scene for a long time, it might spark an exodus.
“Lalu in jail is an asset, if the assembly polls is to happen this year; 2019 could be a different ball game,” said a top RJD leader, not willing to be quoted. The main worry within the family is, ‘the boys are far from settled in politics”. JD(U) leader KC Tyagi believed the latest conviction closed the RJD chapter. “It’s difficult for it to emerge out of this abyss,” he said.
But betting against Prasad, a man known to rebound every time he is written off, is still fraught with the danger of a political miscalculation.
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Laluji may be behind the prison, but his counsel will always prevail. His following can only increase. We have just been strengthened.
MANOJ JHA, RJD spokesperson