New Delhi: While the Bihar Congress is assessing whether the Yadav votes will remain intact or whether RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s vote bank will shift to the allies, it feels the Mohan Bhagwat and Asaduddin Owaisi factors will ultimately help the “grand alliance” in an electoral battle being fought on the planks of forward versus backward, social justice versus development and political dynasty versus authoritarianism.
A section of the Bihar Congress is unsure whether the Yadav vote bank of Mr Lalu Yadav will remain intact because the split in it started in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the defeat of the RJD supremo from Patliputra but win from Saran. And, in 2010, his wife, former chief minister Rabri Devi, lost the Assembly elections. Their daughter Misa Bharati had also lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Patliputra seat. This time their two sons are fighting the Assembly elections.
Some state Congress leaders see a trend in the fall of the Yadav vote bank, which was seen in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2010 Bihar Assembly polls. According to them, promotion of family members is weakening Mr Yadav’s social justice plank.
But other Bihar Congress leaders disagree, saying had this been a factor then the Lok Janshakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan should not have won any seat because the LJP has become a party of the Paswan family with his son and brothers controlling it.
Ram Kripal Yadav, Mr Lalu Yadav’s one-time protégé and now BJP MP, feels the politics of 1990 cannot remain relevant in 2015. This means that Mr L.K. Advani’s arrest in 1989, the social justice plank and secularism cannot attract the aspirational class which has seen a difference in the Lalu-Rabri regime and Nitish-led government.
But a senior Bihar Congress leader said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement on reservation in government jobs, the growing role of AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, and the emergence of Pappu Yadav are helping the grand alliance which can cross 140 seats in the Assembly of 243 members.
If Mr Bhagwat’s statement has consolidated pro-reservation castes against the BJP, Mr Owaisi’s presence has sent out a message to the minorities that he is acting as a front of PM and a vote to his AIMIM would be like voting for the BJP.
However, these developments are unlikely to benefit the Congress because of the selection of wrong candidates.
