It is nothing but natural for people to write off Lalu Prasad Yadav after he lost majority to his archrival National Democratic Alliance in the just concluded Bihar assembly elections. Only few can break this euphoric environment and look at the reality logically.

Given the hidden fissures in the NDA coalition and splitting talents of RJD supremo it is difficult to give five years guarantee to Nitish Kumar government. Factionalism is higher in the NDA camp than in any other groups. This is evident from the everyday revolt against the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. Even the national level setup is shaken by the serious camp troubles. L.K. Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharathi, Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley are spending sleepless nights to chart out their course of action to defeat the other camp. George Fernandes’s explicit anger against Nitish is another teething trouble spot.

The entire world is aware of the political poaching skills of Lantern carrying Lalu Yadav. Systematically Lalu devastated Lok Jan Shakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan after the last assembly election. Soon after the majority members of LJP joined hands with NDA, Lalu broke in to Paswan’s camp so easily. Giving the possible ascend of NDA into the throne as a threat, he convinced Sonia Gandhi to advise P.M to do the necessary work to dissolve the assembly. In the middle of night, Lalu had the last laugh after President Abdul Kalam signed the proclamation dissolving Bihar assembly from Iceland.

Although Lalu lost his kingdom which he ruled without any development his vote share was intact. Really none of the political parties lost their vote share heavily. Only the number of independents was reduced this time and vote for non political candidates were minimized. The success of NDA lies in the efficient coalition management and excellent co-ordination. Early start of the election process is another plus point of the NDA which gave a majority despite every media group predicting a hung assembly.

After this setback, Lalu’s all time joking abilities will be reduced now. As a pragmatic politician, Lalu will reach out to his bitter enemies like Ram Vilas Paswan to reclaim his lost bastion. This is crystal clear if one compares Lalu’s approach to Paswan in the pre and post election scenario.

Entertaining the people around him was the hobby of Laluji. All time tamsha maker, Lalu was not serious about any development issue. While the rest of India and Indian politicians were changing to the circumstances, the RJD leader refused to learn. Till the last vote counted, he was asserting the irrelevance of BSP equation (Bijali, Sadak and Pani) in the electoral politics. For him only one issue which mattered was caste. Although he was cracking jokes before the final election results, he was aware of the possible ouster. . Taking advantage of the poverty and innocence of the Bihar populace, Lalu lived in 1. Anne Marg for fifteen years. Now he realizes the heat of public anger and caste miscalculation.


Defeat is not that consequential for Lalu now. If he is not the union minister, he might have faced tremendous trouble and embarrassment. God is in his side at this critical moment of his overthrow from the Bihar dynasty. He can circle the world with same pomp and show. But that’s not the only criteria for a politician to be powerful. To survive successfully in the Indian politics and reclaim his lost dynasty, Lalu needs to reorient his approach to politics and development. His talents can be utilized for better results than just spitting one-liners