The Mahagathbandhan comprising of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and Congress in November 2015 decided to come together to stop the Modi juggernaut. The grand alliance against all odds and expectations won the mandate from the people of Bihar and bagged 178 seats out of 243 seats in the Bihar assembly. The recent development of Nitish Kumar breaking up the alliance and going with Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government comes as no surprise and it was inevitable considering the friction within the alliance over the past six months regarding various issues.
Is Lalu Prasad Yadav responsible for the collapse of grand alliance? Did Lalu make a mistake by not asking his son Tejashwi Yadav to step down from his post in light of corruption allegations? Nitish Kumar while resigning on Wednesday had said that he wanted Tejashwi to explain the charges of graft levelled against him and should demit office until the probe is over. Nitish Kumar over the past year had given many inclinations that he was uneasy with the RJD and its brand of politics and had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on surgical strike, demonetisation, GST and host of other issues such as voting for National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. Nitish knew that opposition was in disarray before 2019 elections and chances of him leading anti-BJP front were very remote.
Lalu Yadav is a seasoned politician and backed his son Tejashwi to come clean on corruption allegations levelled by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Lalu, who is a convict in fodder scam knew that he couldn’t fight elections and only way to continue his political legacy is by promoting his sons. Coincidentally Lalu’s party RJD bagged the most seats (80) as compared to JD (U) (71) and despite that Nitish Kumar became chief minister. The raids by the CBI on Lalu’s family were the last nail in the coffin for Nitish and his conscience didn’t allow him to continue as chief minister of Bihar.
What next for Lalu Yadav? Lalu and his son Tejashwi have been on offensive and have said that Nitish back stabbed them and it was all part of a plan to cozy up to BJP and it was an excuse for Nitish to dump alliance on the charges of corruption. Lalu has said that he will not give up his fight against communal forces and is still hopeful that RJD can bounce back to be a force in the Bihar politics. The recent events have shown that if Lalu had asked Tejashwi to step down then the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ might have been saved and Nitish would still be the CM of the grand alliance rather than of NDA.
