In power for 15 yrs, NDA banks on ‘Lalu’s Jungle Raj’ to win Bihar polls

“Jab tak rahega samose me aaloo, tab tak rahega Bihar me Lalu (Lalu will continue to thrive in Bihar politics, as long as potato stuffing is used in samosas), was how RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav once said, addressing an election rally in his home state in the late 90s when he was at the height of popularity. Samosa, a triangle-shaped deep-fried savoury, filled with its staple stuffing of spicy potatoes, was used as a metaphor by Lalu to assert his popularity and importance in state politics.

Today, Lalu remains completely out of the state’s political scene, cooling his heels in Ranchi jail, more than 300 km from Patna, for his involvement in the multi-million dollar fodder scam. His party has been out of power for the past 15 years, except for a brief spell of 20 months. And, finally his entire family —starting from Lalu himself, his wife Rabri Devi and children to his sons-in-law—have been making the rounds of courts in connection with various corruption cases registered against them by their political opponents.

Is Lalu still giving sleepless nights to opponents?

Yet, Lalu remains the most feared Opposition politician for the ruling NDA — comprising the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal United (JD-U) and the Lok Janshkti Party (LJP). It is interesting how politicians, from BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to petty NDA leaders, have all focused their campaigns (for the upcoming Assembly polls) on Lalu, and are telling their cadres to remind the masses about RJD’s proverbial “Jungle Raj”.

The proverb is being extensively used even though the NDA, which is in power in Bihar since 2005 and at the Centre since May 2014, has a lot many other things to tell the masses —from the Bihar development story to the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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So, why have the NDA leaders suddenly begun talking about Lalu ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar? Is Lalu still so powerful despite being thrown into jail, and are there chances of him getting released soon?

“Lalu is not a spent force and hence the NDA doesn’t want to take a chance. Sometimes, negative campaigns too fetch votes,” says political commentator NK Chaudhary, a former professor with Patna University.

According to him, Lalu means a certain combination of social justice, who has quite a good following across various caste groups and just can’t be ignored. “To whom Muslims will vote? Where will Yadavs go? So, the NDA fails to ignore Lalu,” he explained.

Nitish skips issues, chooses tirade against Lalu

Nitish has been often talking about development agenda, his double-digit growth, his focus on governance and finally how he established a “Rule of Bihar” during his 15-year stay in power. Of late, he even turned a reformer by enforcing total prohibition, launching massive campaigns against dowry and child marriage and carried out state-wide tours of Bihar to make people aware about the importance of environment conservation. If that was not enough, the chief minister has been forming human chains over these issues for the past three years frequently.

Yet, he doesn’t sound confident of winning the elections with the help of all these positive issues in hand. The common masses and political watchers were hugely surprised when the chief minister went on a tirade against Lalu and his family, venting out his ire on the family’s “corrupt deeds” and then advised his party leaders and workers to fan out in villages and remind the people about RJD’s “misrule” during his week-long virtual meetings with the party workers last week.

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For a full week, local newspapers were awash with punchy headlines based on Nitish’s virtual meetings with the JD(U) workers. Some of these include: “Tell the new generation how Bihar was under the husband-wife rule; Remind the masses of the 15-year-old regime of RJD; Husband-wife government exploited people’s sentiments to get votes; Husband-wife government worked for their own welfare, and I only know how to work, not to make money”. The husband-wife rule was a reference to the reign of Lalu and Rabri Devi for 15 years – from March 1990 to March 2005.

BJP follows suit

Strangely, not only Nitish but the BJP too has adopted a similar line, amply indicating that it wants to get votes through negative campaigns rather than highlighting its achievements and its vision for Bihar. That became clear when Shah, during his party’s first mega digital rally held on June 7, focused his speech on the Lalu regime. By referring to “Loot and Order, Lathi era and Fodder scam” Shah amply explained how Lalu still haunts the alliance partners despite not being around.

“Such speeches clearly explain they (the NDA) have nothing to show to the masses despite being in power for 15 years. This is a virtually negative campaign which exposes the failures of the NDA,” remarked prominent analyst DM Diwakar, former director with the Patna-based AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies. According to him, NDA leaders are still scared of Lalu since he still remains a dominant force in Bihar politics, has huge following and is a mass leader.

Diwakar added that by inserting the Lalu narrative into the political campaign, the NDA is also unsuccessfully trying to divert the attention of the masses from the reservation issue which impacted the last Assembly polls. “The BJP has tried to play ‘backward card’ by projecting Nitish as NDA’s CM face but it has got caught in a fairly new trouble this time in view of recent observation by the Supreme Court which said that ‘reservation is not a fundamental right’. This has landed the entire NDA in trouble and they are trying hard to somehow extricate out of the crisis, and they perhaps think Lalu could be an option,” Diwakar explained.

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Political experts say the entire NDA is also in deep crisis over the issue of migrants who were shabbily treated by the leadership both at the centre and in Bihar. According to the government’s own estimate, more than 30 lakh migrants have returned to the state after lockdown and they are very annoyed. Experts say the migrants are certainly not to leave the state so soon and very obviously will be casting their votes in the coming elections. According to them, migrants who come from all caste groups could be a major factor in the state elections where the elections are decided generally by a margin of 5000 to 10,000 votes.

“Just divide 30 lakh migrants with 243 and you will understand the importance of migrants in this election. They have not come on their own but by compulsion. This is the worry of the ruling NDA and hence they are behaving angrily,” commented Diwakar. Bihar has a total of 243 assembly segments.

A RJD parliamentarian wondered about the NDA’s move to focus their campaign on Lalu. “Even after 15 years in power, if the NDA leaders have to use Lalu Prasad as their cover, this highlights the hollowness of their achievements,” remarked RJD parliamentarian Manoj Jha.