Laloo leads, Paswan not far behind

With less than three months to go before the Bihar Assembly elections, alliances and issues are still a matter of speculation, but two thing...

With less than three months to go before the Bihar Assembly elections, alliances and issues are still a matter of speculation, but two things are for sure. One, there cannot be a rapprochement between Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, warring colleagues in the Union Cabinet. Two, Paswan has emerged as the most credible challenger to Laloo 8212; a fact that anti-Laloo parties cannot ignore.

On Monday, Laloo trained his guns on Paswan again, calling him 8216;8216;chieftain of criminals8217;8217;, and threatening a probe into some purchases made by the railways during the latter8217;s tenure as minister. 8216;8216;Ramvilas claims to be honest but no force on earth can save him the moment I make some files public,8217;8217; Laloo said.

On Saturday, Paswan had called Laloo 8216;8216;fodder thief8217;8217;, and later accused him of intimidating Lok Janashakti Party workers. 8216;8216;Laloo is using the police and administration to harass our workers and even journalists who write about him,8217;8217; Paswan said. 8216;8216;Laloo and his gang of tainted ministers have become an embarrassment for the Union government.8217;8217;

Those who thought Paswan8217;s stand against Laloo was merely a tool for better seat bargain have been taken aback by the aggressiveness. 8216;8216;RJD electoral calculations so far accounted for the possibility of alliance with Paswan too. That is no longer the case,8217;8217; an RJD MP said.

Paswan8217;s rally on Saturday 8212; the first of any political party this season 8212; has been termed 8216;8216;impressive8217;8217; by each local newspaper and has alerted Laloo. One popular daily has even compared it to 8216;8216;JP8217;s rally in 1974, calling for change.8217;8217; Laloo8217;s outbursts soon after, perhaps, betrayed his nervousness. Adding more credibility to Paswan8217;s challenge are the bureaucrats, who are no longer putting all their eggs in Laloo8217;s basket.

Several upper caste sections have already pledged support to Paswan and the rally showcased his newly-inducted gang of upper caste strongmen 8212; Suraj Bhan Singh, Rajan Tiwari and Munna Shukla.

With a militant section of Dalits already behind him, Paswan is now pitching for Muslims, Laloo8217;s trusted base. In 60-odd meetings that he addressed over the last month, he has tried to convince Muslims that 8216;8216;Laloo cannot be trusted. He is nobody8217;s man and he has not given you anything.8217;8217; As of now, Muslim pockets are only giving a patient hearing and have shown no inclination to leave Laloo. With the Muslim-Yadav combination still beyond any credible threat, Laloo is still Bihar8217;s most important leader. But the debate over the second most important leader in the state has been settled in favour Paswan.