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Anti-Emergency and Mandal politics hero Lalu Prasad — who has served as Bihar Chief Minister, Railway Minister and MP for several terms — is looking at a bleak future for his party, the RJD.
Lalu’s charisma and promise of social justice withered away as narrow family interests dominated and the BJP used the corruption charges against him and and his family members to its own benefit. The RJD, which has been seeing a steady decline since 2009, had won four seats in 2014. This time round, it could not win even a single seat and its vote share plummeted to 15.36 per cent.
It’s not just the infighting among the three siblings — Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti — that led to the erosion. Party old timers say political bankruptcy, lack of inner party democracy and ignorance of the leadership on the political churning led to the electoral backlash.
Revival hopes
The RJD is, however, hopeful of a revival.
“Caste discrimination is a reality. So the relevance of the RJD as a party that opposes caste oppression will remain. But the party will have to dust off its socialist moorings and take up livelihood issues such as unemployment and agrarian distress. With just a caste base, it will be difficult to attract youngsters,” said Shivanand Tiwari, a senior political leader from Bihar.
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