For Cong, 11 seats good show minus Laloo

They agreed there was a risk involved. If the Congress-LJP alliance had further eroded Laloo’s base, the NDA could have inched closer to a majority. But they feel there is greater pride in winning these 11 seats than last time’s nine. In 2000, they had not fought both Laloo and the NDA. This time, they did, and these 11 seats constitute a first step towards retracing political adulthood in Bihar. The LJP support base was not the same as having Laloo’s machinery working for them.

But there has been an element of foolhardiness. The new alliance could have led the UPA government to the brink of disaster. Had the NDA combine sneaked through, the Congress would have been blamed by its ‘secular’ allies for playing into the hands of ‘fundamentalist’ forces. It would have made the coalition vulnerable. The Congress would have had to rely more on the Left and allies like the DMK would have been more suspicious.

However, this is the best Bihar result the Congress could have bargained for. It now has to broker a deal between two Bihar caste leaders. It can get a weakened Laloo to dump tainted ministers and avoid populist measures with the Railways and empowering Paswan will keep him happy and strengthen his allegiance.

It was not such a well thought out plan, that Arjun Singh and M.L.Fotedar, in charge of Bihar, had worked out. Despite grassroots workers’ claims, the results do not show any plausible gain. The Paswan alliance showed the Congress is yet to learn some of the basics of coalition dharma —— the political space of the ally needs to be respected.

The question that emerges also concerns the wisdom of taking on two major casteist parties of the Hindi heartland simultaneously. Once you have begun isolating the SP in UP why open another front against a Sonia loyalist like Laloo?