Lalu Prasad faces political extinction

PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad would not have dreamt about such a dismal electoral performance. The man who once famously boasted that Jab tak rahega samose me aalu, tab tak rahega Bihar me Lalu now finds himself on the political margins.

From the mighty political force he once was, he has been virtually reduced to a midget who may find it hard to recover from such a telling blow inflicted by the Nitish Kumar-led alliance. To add to his mortification, his wife Rabri Devi lost both the Yadav-dominated seats of Sonepur and Raghopur.

The heavy loss will erode the political credibility of Prasad, who projected himself as the chief ministerial candidate but may not even have the Leader of the Opposition post in the state assembly for his party.

The RJD-LJP combine failed to excite the electorate, which backed the development plank of the ruling NDA. Even Prasad’s famed M-Y (Muslims and Yadavs) formula suffered a split hitting the poll prospects of RJD-LJP.

Muslims may not have abandoned RJD, but a good chunk of them rallied behind JD(U), and even Congress, costing Prasad dearly. His chances of a comeback largely hinged on the voting pattern of minorities. The development story scripted by Nitish Kumar prompted a section of Muslims to even back BJP, certainly a new development.

While Prasad could not substantially hold on to the traditional Muslim vote bank, his problems were compounded because a good number of Yadavs and Paswans may have been tempted to vote for NDA largely because they were willing to trust Kumar’s development story.

RJD’s dismal run continues since it was ousted in the 2005 state assembly elections. But this time, it has been mauled by NDA.

The future looks bleak for Prasad who may want to stitch an alliance with Congress to be counted on the political turf of Bihar. He will try hard to win over Congress on the plea that a division in secular votes has worked to great disadvantage for RJD and Congress and a broad-based alliance will be mutually beneficial. But Congress, having broken free from e RJD, would instead be more inclined to augment its political outreach in Bihar on its own strength.

The worst fears for Prasad could come true if Ram Vilas Paswan deserts him to align with Congress. It could sound the death knell of Lalu Prasad the politician.