Two years after the so-called political crystal gazers wrote his political obituary following his conviction in a fodder scam case, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief lalu Prasad has risen like a phoenix and delivered a knock-out punch to the BJP in the Assembly elections. If Nitish Kumar is the hero of Bihar Assembly polls, lalu Prasad is undoubtedly the director of the great show.
The results say all and no one can question lalu’s hard work. Despite his poor health and the stigma of conviction in the fodder scam, the 67-year Yadav chieftain toiled hard and showed that once the star striker, he can also be a good team man. Tipped to be a liability, lalu turned out to be the biggest asset for Nitish and the Congress as he brought Muslims and Yadavs to the Grand Alliance fold and prevented polarisation.
lalu went and sought votes for the Grand Alliance and convinced people to shed their grudges and caste politics and vote for the alliance. “Yadav ko bewfoof banata hai. Kehta hai Yadav ko phodo. Backward aur Yadav lalu ko chhodne wale nahin. Jab bhains Yadav ko nahi patak saka toh Modi Yadav ko kaise patak dega. (Modi is trying to fool Yadavs. He says destroy Yadavs. The backward castes and Yadavs won’t leave lalu. When the buffalo couldn’t knock the Yadavs down, how can ModiIJ),” lalu said.
With his wit and humour, he kept the momentum for the Grand Alliance in the campaign that often appeared overshadowed by Prime Minister’s rallies. For each and every barb flung by Narendra Modi, lalu had his own catchy one-liners. Terming the BJP as Bharat Jalao Party and Bharatiya Jumla Party, lalu even sang “Kya hua tera waada, wo kasam wo iraada.” He also backed Nitish’s visit to a tantrik saying “I am the biggest tantrik” and declared Nitish as the Dulha (bridegroom) of the Grand Alliance, while NDA as a bina dulha ki baraat.
lalu undoubtedly knows the pulse of people. So when he jumped on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwa’st statement on review of reservation policy and raised an alarm that the Modi Government is all for scrapping quotas, it got registered with voters.
In all, lalu held record 243 rallies in about 30 days. The travel was taxing for the man nursing a heart ailment but then lalu made it clear that his heart was at the right place and this time there was no way he would allow any “Bahari’ to step into Bihar. So he “drank poison” to join hands with his one-time biggest political enemy Nitish Kumar. Politics makes strange bed fellows and lalu adjusted to that with ease.
like Dabaang’s Salman Khan: “Ek baar maine commitment kar di tau fir mai apney aap ki bhi nahi sunta” lalu was never found wanting in his efforts to swing the polls Mahagathbandhan way.