What Lalu is doing amid polls

Serving out his prison term at the Ranchi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he has been staying since May 2018, the man who has been synonymous with Bihar politics for four decades is away from the heat and dust this time. Even son and political heir Tejashwi Yadav is accused by rivals of downplaying the Lalu Prasad influence. However, the 72-year-old is watching the action closely. “Laluji is watching news on TV all the time, even while having meals. He doesn’t read newspapers much… He sometimes asks nurses to read out headlines,” says an official of the Birsa Munda Central Jail, Ranchi, where Lalu is supposed to be lodged, who paid a routine visit to him less than a week ago.