Rise And Fall Of The Bihari Maverick Lalu Prasad Yadav; King Of The Commoners, Rejected By Disenchanted Subjects

Lalu Yadav always told the people that he was one of them, he belonged to the downtrodden, the untouchables, he ruled like a king but soon came his downfall. Know the story of the maverick politician.

Bihar Elections 2020: While riding the Anti-Congress wave in 1989 the Janta Dal won 32 of 54 seats in Bihar. Lalu Prasad back then was one of the leaders who spearheaded the campaign and emerged victoriously. Known for his poll winning election management and social engineering, the present days are not good for the former chief minister of Bihar.

Lalu Yadav- the leader of the students and the commoners

Lalu Prasad Yadav was born in a family of 6 siblings from Phulwaria, Bihar in 1948. Yadav moved to Patna with his elder brother for higher education from where he started his political career as a student leader. He even worked as a clerk for some time at the Bihar Veterinary College. But following his stints as a young politician and his closeness with the then leaders of the socialist strain, Lalu won the 1977 Lok Sabha seat from Chapra, making him the youngest MP.

The maverick politician, a jester many times, and a crowd puller. Lalu Prasad turned Bihar's politics - and economic health - upside down as he catapulted from a student leader of the 1970s to become one of India's best politicians. Only a few regional politicians have enjoyed the kind of pan-India appeal that he had, who was born into a farmers' family in June 1948. His first electoral victory was in 1977, when he entered parliament at the age 29, marking the start of an eventful career; just 13 years later he became Bihar's chief minister and then later the Union Railway minister.

Lalu’s popularity started catapulted after he ordered the arrest of BJP stalwart LK Advani in the first leg of Rathyatra in Bihar. It was that time of the era when no one dared to oppose Advani but he took a step stopping the senior BJP leader in Bhagalpur promoting his image as a ferocious national leader.

Lalu dared to stop Advani's Rath Yatra and became a national leader

Lalu consolidated his position further as the messiah of backward classes and Dalits after implementation of the Mandal Commission report and later pursued the Muslim-Yadav (M-Y) formula, leading to a rock-solid unity of the backward castes, Dalits, and Muslims. It was purely because of Lalu’s leadership capabilities and his social engineering that the Janata Dal won 31 out of 54 Lok Sabha seats in 1991 and 22 seats in 1996 parliamentary polls.

In the year 1997, he parted from the Janta Dal and floated his own political outfit Rashtriya Janta Dal and with the support of 17 Lok Sabha MPs and 8 Rajya MPs, the entire Janta Dal Legislature party became part of the RJD in Bihar.

In 1998 Lok Sabha polls, RJD retained the tally of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar but performed poorly in 1999, winning only seven seats. But the victory was well awaited when the RJD emerged victorious in the year 2000 assembly polls with the support of Congress. It was the year when Jharkhand was separated from Bihar, the assembly seats in the Bihar assembly came down from 325 to 243, while the Lok Sabha seats were reduced to 40 from 54.

 In the year 2004, Lalu bounced back with 22 Lok Sabha seats, and being the part of the UPA, he became the Railway minister. In between 1997 to 2005, the two-time Chief Minister of Bihar made his wife Rabri Devi CM of Bihar for 3 times.

The fall of people's leader Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Yadav and his party’s luck started to fade away starting from 2005. In the assembly polls of February of 2005, his party only managed to get 75 seats, while the same year in November the number of seats fell down to 54, and his former ally Nitish Kumar rose to power.

Subsequently, from 22 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha, the RJD was just left with 4 seats in 2009. And in the year 2010 RJD only managed to get just 22 seats in the assembly elections. His wife three-time CM of the just contested from two seats but lost from both.

 Later in the year 2013, when the former railway minister was convicted in the fodder scam, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was banned from contesting elections. Meanwhile, his party managed to secure 4 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections during the Narendra Modi wave.

After successive poll failures, Lalu tried to stitch back his political legacy, when he joined hands with his former ally and longtime opponent Nitish Kumar with Congress, as the trio shared the same anti-Modi ideology. RJD-JDU-Congress Mahagathbandhan emerged victoriously. RJD emerged as the single largest party, JDU and Congress secured 71 and 22 seats respectively. But the alliance was very short-lived as Nitish Kumar stepped out of the conglomerate after 15 months and joined hands with the BJP.

In 2019, things got even worse as RJD was not even able to secure a single seat. Right now, Lalu Yadav is the coordinator of the Mahagathbandhan for the upcoming assembly polls.

Even though Lalu faced multiple criminal and corruption charges, he’s still known for his down to earth attitude, a formidable campaigner, and holds his core vote with strength and energy.