In the dressing room

Maybe this is a classic case of like father,like son. Both are non-playing players for the moment at least. Lalu,once the face of Bihar,has played no part in its turnaround story. His party,the RJD,has been dwindling in significance ever since the assembly elections of 2005,when it was routed by the potent combine of Nitish Kumars JDU and the BJP. In the state polls of 2010,it could only muster a pitiful 22 seats,even making it difficult for its leader to stake claim to the position of leader of opposition a first-time predicament in Bihar. Theres no place for the RJD in Nitishs Bihar,and Lalu is complicit in his own irrelevance. A waning RJD seems to have ceded the voice of a vibrant and dynamic opposition.

Lalu,it would seem,is waiting around in dressing rooms,neither seizing the initiative,nor allowed to play even when theres talk of a new third or fourth front. But his has been a career marked by peaks and pitfalls. Few can match the former chief minister and Union railways minister in sheer derring-do or his forceful interventions in parliamentary debate. It would be presumptuous to write off Lalu just yet. Tejashwi,chip off the old block,can take heart.