As the Bihar election campaign came to a close, the verdict was delivered in less than a week, and the aging patriarch of the RJD, Lalu Prasad Yadav, remained largely in the wings while his son Tejashwi took center stage in his bid to defeat the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government.
Lalo, who had been ill, did not appear to be his usual thriving self. He looks gloomy and agitated when he meets the Indian Express, sitting in a solitary chair in the veranda at 10 Ring Road in Patna, the official residence of his wife, the RJD’s leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly, and former Prime Minister Rabri Devi.
Lalu strikes a different note when asked what focus the Mahagathbandhan government will have if it comes to power. “Is baar hum berozgari ko dur karenge (This time, we will get rid of the unemployment situation)… We will form the government – and we will remove Nitish Kumar.”
Regarding the possibility of tying up again with the JD(U) in case the numbers do not match, Lalu said categorically. “Ab hum Nitish Kumar ko sweekar nahin karenge (We will never accept Nitish Kumar again)… We are not in touch with Nitish.”
Despite Lalu’s disclaimer, Bihar is abuzz with speculation that Nitish might make another “balta (turn)”, if he is not made prime minister by the BJP in the event of an NDA victory – and if the new Assembly arithmetic means a Mahagathbandhan Sarkar could be formed with the help of the JD(U).
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier placed the cat among the pigeons when he said that while the NDA was contesting the elections under Nitish’s leadership, the chief minister would be chosen by the newly elected MLAs. It didn’t go well with the Niche camp.
Although several NDA leaders later confirmed that Nitish would take over as chief minister if the coalition returns to power, the question remains puzzling. In the past few days, the Prime Minister has praised Nitish more than usual for everything he has done for Bihar, while attacking Lalu’s ‘jungle raj’.
Opposing each other, Lalu and Nitish have been two of Bihar’s most prominent political figures, shaping and reshaping the state’s politics over the past 35 years – as rivals but collaborators. They opposed each other at times but they also came to each other’s rescue.
Some have pointed out that Nitish, an astute politician, has kept Lalu Prasad’s family relevant by joining hands with the RJD in 2015 and again in 2022, appointing his son Tejashwi as deputy chief minister on both occasions. If Nitish had not hurt Lalu beyond a point, the RJD chief, in turn, allowed him to lead the Mahagathbandhan government instead of insisting on the chief minister’s post to the RJD when they were in an alliance.
Nitish knew that if the political control of the first Yadav family weakened, the Yadav family might start gravitating towards the BJP, making it a player in its own right. Nitish may have been taken out of the picture.
At the same time, Nitish has also forged an alliance between the Kurmi-Koris, the extremely backward castes who left Lalu in 2005 – alienated by his elevation of the Yadav community at their expense – and the Mahadalits, who bring together the most marginalized non-Paswan Dalits. This gave the JD(U) leader the numbers he needed, being from the Kurmi community, which accounts for just 2.8% of the population, unlike the Yadavs in Lalu, who are over 14%.
Nitish’s decision to part ways with Lalu and join the BJP and its upper-caste base has added to this vote bank. Thus began the Nitish era in Bihar politics in 2005.
The JD(U) leader has managed to keep this going by keeping the BJP in check, just as he has ensured that Lalu and his family remain relevant. Many point to the free hand CM Nitish has given to bureaucrats to deal with any communal conflagration as an example of this. There is hardly any anti-Muslim sentiment in Bihar, many will tell you that, unlike neighboring Uttar Pradesh for example.
Hence politics in Bihar revolved around the trio of BJP, RJD and JD(U). Since the RJD will not cooperate with the BJP, its collaborator JD(U) has formed the government in the recent past, with Nitish remaining as chief minister.
The 2025 election scenario saw the entry of a fourth entity – Jan Suraj, led by “saboteur” Prashant Kishor, who accused both Lalu and Nitish of “destroying” Bihar.
Today, Lalu, who broke the stranglehold of the upper castes in state politics and paved the way for Nitish, is seen as ‘the past’. However, insiders say he played an important role in deciding tickets for RJD. When the seat-sharing process almost derailed, with the Congress refusing to field Tejashwi as the main face of the Mahagathbandhan, it was Lalu who intervened between the RJD and the Congress to restore the situation.
However, as the solitary photo shoot he made at No. 10, Ring Road, shows, the RJD is not keen on putting him at the forefront, be it in posters, billboards or campaigning. It has been kept virtually under wraps – fearing it might spark a controversy that reminds people of the ‘jungle raj’ – even as Tejashwi presents a ‘sober’ and forward-looking image of the RJD, focusing on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ and highlighting the party’s ‘I’ base as not just ‘Muslim’ and ‘Yadav’ but also ‘Mahila’ and ‘youth’.
If the question of what comes after Lalu is hanging in the air, so is what comes after Nitish, who has not identified a successor or established a second line of leadership. As Nitish’s health deteriorated, many wrote him off.
But in an election campaign where there was no “akrush (anger)” against him – although there was anti-incumbency against NDA members – Nitish was campaigning aggressively. He may also have another masterstroke with the Mukhimmantri Mahila Rojar Yojana, announced just before the elections, under which the first installment of Rs 10,000 was made to the accounts of over 1.2 crore women.
Bihar 2025 is undoubtedly about a transition to ‘the future’, in the form of Tejashwi and Kishore, as well as TJP leader Chirag Paswan and BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary. But for now, Nitish and Lalu, even as they suffer from health issues, continue to dominate the discourse.
Be it Masauri, Barachetti, Piparghatti, Bodh Gaya, Gaya, Saran or Patna, when people talk about their voting preferences, they express it as: “We will vote for Nitish (even if the candidate belongs to the JD-U HAM-S, LJP-RV or BJP allies),” or they point to Lalu.
(Tags for translation) Lalu Prasad Yadav
