Lalu loses battle for ground, but war with NaMo flares up and engulfs Nitish too

Patna,(BiharTimes): RJD chief Lalu Prasad lost the Police Line ground to the Bharatiya Janata Party but still hopes to get the Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology, as also demanded by his party.

But Bihar-watchers are of the view that Lalu is not so naïve a politician to lose a battle so easily. There is certainly something more to do with it.

He might not have got the field of his choice to fight the battle; still nobody has yet asked him to change the date, that is, March 3.

If two rallies are held in two different places not far away from each other in the same town it would certainly be a big challenge for the rank and file of both the parties. In between this would be dragged the ruling Janata Dal (United) in Bihar.

Before the Police Line was actually allotted Lalu had said that it is to be seen whether Nitish gives it to his friend, Narendra Modi, or to the RJD to hold its workers’ meet. Nitish tried to play safe by stating that the one who has applied first would get the field to address the rally.

But Lalu certainly wanted to show to the people, especially his supporters and minority voters, that Nitish is still soft towards former ally. He also wanted to show that in Bihar Janata Dal (United) is no more a force and it is the RJD, which can challenge the BJP.

Having succeeded in that, he had now decided to take the bull by its horn. The man, who got the then BJP supremo, Lal Krishna Advani, arrested on Oct 23, 1990––when his Somnath to Ayodhya Yatra was at its peak––has now decided to take Narendra Modi head on.

After having been busy in Delhi to cobble alliance with the Congress and LJP he suddenly hogged the media headline by calling for a rally on the same day in the same town.

At least in the media coverage Lalu would certainly eat into the space of Nitish Kumar and even Narendra Modi. At the same time he had landed the state administration in a very tight situation. After all, the blasts in Patna on Hunkar Rally day Oct 27 exposed the serious failure of the Nitish government.
So with thousands of supporters of both sides in Muzaffarpur on the same day the administration would have to take extra precautionary measures. Needless to say both the BJP and RJD have aggressive supporters and there is no dearth of hot-heads in both the camps.

If in any case Lalu’s rally turns out to be bigger than Narendra Modi’s it may dealt a psychological blow to the BJP. Therefore, both the sides are busy making it a big success.

But what if Lalu’s rally turns out to be smaller? RJD would be quick with some other explanation. They may say that it was just a divisional level workers’ meet and not a full-fledged public meeting.

There is no doubt that Lalu still has the capability to mobilize the mass as was evident in May 15, 2013 Parivartan Rally in Patna. Even in the mid-summer afternoon it was by any standard a huge gathering. It was a big success even when the BJP and JD(U) were united and Lalu was not convicted. After the conviction he had certainly earned more sympathy.

But equally interesting is the story on the other side. Unlike all the Bihar BJP leaders, Narendra Modi has the quality to pull crowd. His critics may say that Hunkar Rally was not so big as it is being claimed. But then who can deny that the saffron party’s prime ministerial candidate would definitely try to cash in on the sentiment created after the serial bomb blasts on that day.

By holding the rally on the same day Lalu certainly wants to galvanize his supporters––especially Yadavs. The RJD war-machine needs to be oiled as repeated defeats have brought a sort of despondency. So why not energies them by holding a parallel rally?

On the other hand the BJP cadres appear somewhat upbeat. The strategy is to make a dent into the Yadav votes.

Muzaffarpur and its adjoining districts were once a stronghold of Rashtriya Janata Dal, and even Lok Janshakti Party. But since 2005 it gradually turned into the Janata Dal (United) bastion as a large number of Extreme Backward Caste and Mahadalit votes shifted towards it. Still Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a senior RJD leader, represents Vaishali seat in Lok Sabha.

On paper the BJP may not have as strong a base there. But as elsewhere it is just banking on Narendra Modi factor. But then this may turn out to be disadvantage too as the very name of Modi sparks of sharp polarisation. Besides, the state BJP is yet to have any leader of the stature of Lalu or Nitish.