ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Lalu Yadav tours Bihar and draws encouraging crowds as early Lok Sabha elections look likely
Aafter more than a year of deliberate political hibernation, Lalu Prasad Yadav is back in action. Beginning May this year, the 65- yearold Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD) chief has toured more than a dozen districts in Bihar and travelled more than a thousand kilometres by road to address public meetings that attracted huge crowds. In July, he also campaigned for Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential bid in Jharkhand. His increased visibility marks a clear shift from the time he had withdrawn into a shell following the crushing defeat in the November 2010 Assembly polls in which his wife Rabri Devi lost both seats she stood from, and the RJD tally shrunk to 22 from 54.
Lalu’s itinerary and speeches reveal a careful strategy aimed at gaining a toehold in his erstwhile fiefdom. When he visited Darbhanga in July, he targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the arrests of Muslim youths, while during his five- day tour from West Champaran to Gaya, again in July, Lalu campaigned for a central university at both places less than a month before the Centre actually granted it, in order to claim the credit. In Aurangabad, where protesters seeking justice for a murdered mukhiya were beaten up, Lalu held a public meeting in May against police excesses.
Lalu has also cut down on empty rhetoric. Instead, he is trying to project himself as the anti- establishment face, trying to tap into disillusionment against the Nitish government— which has not delivered all it had promised— to his advantage.
Lalu appears to have timed his campaign well. The next Lok Sabha polls are less than two years away, and the two ruling partners in Bihar, Janata Dal ( United) ( JD- U) and BJP, are not on the best of terms. Despite his bravado, however, Lalu has many disadvantages. Out of power for years, things have turned even more difficult with bête noire Nitish having largely eroded his social base. The RJD chief also does not have the goodwill to cash in on anti- incumbency. Worse still, his health has become an issue, with his opponents even declaring him unfit to bear the weight of an active public life. In March 2012, Lalu had to be admitted at Delhi’s AIIMS after his blood sugar levels shot up.
Added to that is the fact that Lalu does not have a reliable second- incommand. He is said to be willing to groom son Tejaswi, 22, the way Mulayam Singh Yadav has promoted Akhilesh in Uttar Pradesh. But for now, Lalu has put off his son’s coronation, ostensibly to placate senior party leaders unhappy with the idea of his son being foisted on the party. Tejaswi had campaigned extensively for his mother in the 2010 Assembly polls but has shown no keenness to resurrect the party.
The Congress, which is on the backfoot after electoral reverses in Uttar Pradesh, may add teeth to Lalu’s alliance. “Despite his setbacks in 2009 and 2010, Lalu is the strongest anti- NDA force in Bihar. Our target is to win more MPs in the 2014 polls. We can’t do that unless we align with regional forces,” a senior Congress leader said. The Congress has just two members from Bihar in the current Lok Sabha.
Lalu has other reasons to be hopeful. Even though the 2010 Assembly polls saw RJD’s worst performance, the party polled 5,466,693 votes, almost 19 per cent of the total votes, compared to the 39 per cent that the JD( U)- BJP alliance got. RJD leaders also believe a large portion of the 6.75 per cent votes that Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party bagged were from RJD’s support base and can be won back. The traditional Yadav voters, Bihar’s single largest caste which comprises 15 per cent of the population, are said to be firmly backing him. Every helping hand is good news for the beleaguered politician.