Patna, September 22: It is a do-or-die battle for RJD chief Lalu Prasad in the coming Bihar Assembly elections. Pushed to the margins of Bihar politics, Prasad is making all out efforts to re-emerge as the top leader in the state, where his party was in a dominant position till a few years back.
Between 1990 and February, 2005 Lalu held undisputed sway over Bihar”s caste-dominated politics by deftly manipulating minority votes and the Mandal dynamics. In last year”s Lok Sabha elections, Prasad entered into an alliance with LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan for staging a come-back, but instead suffered serious reverses.
The RJD chief will try his best to exploit secular votes. “Our aim will be to garner as many secular votes as possible,” party general secretary Ramkripal Yadav said.
The RJD is also waiting anxiously for declaration of list of candidates by Congress so that it can tailor its list accordingly. RJD, however, is not the only contender for the secular vote pie.
For instance, Congress, buoyed with the success of Rahul Gandhi and other central leaders” visit to the state, is contesting all 243 seats in a determined bid to make a major dent in secular votes. Among others eyeing the secular votes are BSP, SP and the Left parties comprising the CPI, CPI-M and CPI-ML (Liberation) which have announced that they would put up common candidates in around 200 constituencies.
——–PTI