AN AIR OF ANTI-INCUMBENCY

RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) leader Tejashwi Yadav, while campaigning in Rohtas district on October 26, had the crowd erupting in loud cheers.

- Amitabh Srivastava

Laluji ke raj mein gareeb seena taan ke babusahab ke saamne baithta tha (In Lalu Yadav’s time, the poor could hold their own with the [mighty] babusahabs).” This remark by RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) leader Tejashwi Yadav, while campaigning in Rohtas district on October 26, had the crowd erupting in loud cheers. In pressing their self-respect button, Tejashwi was also trying to subvert the Nitish Kumar campaign pitch—15 years (of Nitish) versus 15 years (under Lalu), which has been a recurring leitmotif of the JD(U) campaign. If Nitish was insisting that there were corruption and misrule under Lalu, a resurgent Tejashwi, buoyed by the big turnouts at his rallies and an apparent late groundswell of support, was turning the same pitch on its head, to tell voters that the poor had respect under Lalu.

This was probably the first time Tejashwi had made a direct reference to ‘Lalu raj’ during the current election campaign. In oblique references earlier, he had apologised for past mistakes and made a plea to look ahead, to make another start. As the RJD-led grand alliance’s chief ministerial candidate, he had not only apologized to the people for past mistakes but also sought to steer the RJD away from the party’s old set-pieces of social justice and empowerment of backward castes. That agenda was still on track, in Rohtas, when he declared: “Sabko saath leke chalna hai (We have to take everyone along).” An obvious calculation here is to preempt possible counter-polarisation, which could work to the advantage of the JD(U)-BJP.