Lalus voiceover

In the opening days of the monsoon session of Parliament,as each opposition party used the issue of price rise in part to work out its space in the politial spectrum,Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal too joined the chorus. He admitted that his party was low in strength just four MPs in the Lok Sabha but he said his voice was strong enough to make these four MPs count for a lot more. Lalus political idiom allows him to convey more than what he states,and he knows that the current composition of the Lok Sabha gives his party leverage in excess of what the numbers may ordinarily indicate. Yet,as the final lap to the Bihar assembly elections begins,his political clout in national politics could be on the line.

Last week,the Election Commission derecognised the RJD as a national party. The party had got just 5.03 per cent of the vote in the Jharkhand assembly elections last year,short of the 6 per cent it needed to notch up the requisite four states to enjoy the benefits of a national party. It argued that in alliance with Ram Vilas Paswans LJP they had got more than 6 per cent of the vote,but the EC was not swayed. In any case,the derecognition is no big setback to the party,as it knows its future will be made or unmade in the Bihar elections. However,the argument does reveal the RJDs endeavour. Ever since the Congress resolved to go it alone in the 2009 general elections,the RJD has been searching how to build a social and political coalition in order to approximate its dominance of the 1990s and 2000s. Its subsequent unity with the Samajwadi Party and the LJP is a way of cornering a patch,away from the NDA and searchingly vis-à-vis the

Congress-led UPA.

In the complex,sliced-and-diced social coalitions of Bihars politics,Lalu knows better than anybody else the importance of appearing to be a viable challenger and thereby getting the numbers to get his possible allies interested. Therefore,how he throws his voice in the clamourous run-up to the assembly elections may be crucial.