Laloo Prasad: Cornered?

Madhubani, Feb. 16: If the backward castes and the Dalits of Bihar revel in their relatively new-found political empowerment by rooting for leaders like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, the upper castes seem equally determined to demonstrate their ?historical militancy? in the elections.

No prizes for guessing who the object of their ?militancy? is. Who else but Laloo Prasad? The question before the upper castes is who can vanquish Laloo Prasad? The BJP-Janata Dal (United) or the Congress-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) wherever they are in alliance?

As political leaders criss-cross the state and use the same rhetoric of development and security in varying degrees, the Brahmins, Bhumihars and the Rajputs may resort to a strategy Muslims had been using for years: ?tactical? voting.

In other words, vote ?intelligently? for a candidate who is best poised to defeat Laloo Prasad?s. In the process, the upper castes may be junking the BJP, the party that was their favourite from the Mandir-Mandal era, irrespective of its winning potential.

Chandrabhushan, a Bhumihar landlord of Baharpur village near Patna, said: ?For the last 20 years, our choice was the BJP. It has proved incapable of defeating Laloo Prasad. That is why we are looking at Paswan and the Congress for deliverance.?

Bhumihars like Chandrabhushan have no problems with either. The Congress was their ?natural? choice until the rainbow coalition of the upper castes-Muslims-Dalits it had forged cracked in 1989.

Paswan?s ?upwardly mobile? look and the thrust on development in his campaign have the makings of a caste-neutral leader for the Brahmins and the Bhumihars. ?Paswan?s language is soft and inoffensive, not like Laloo Prasad?s,? remarked Shambhu Pathak, a village priest in Simri near Darbhanga.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi?s mention of the lack of development and the concern she had expressed over the abductions during the first leg of her Bihar campaign also endeared her to the upper castes.

But the Sonia enthusiasm dissipated once she made a neutral-sounding speech in a meeting at Sourat near Madhubani on Saturday.

The two points she made about forging a coalition in Bihar after the 2000 polls ? when the Congress supported the RJD against the wishes of the state leaders ? ?not to partake of power but to keep the communal forces out of it? and urging support for the candidates of the Congress and its allies (she did not mention either the RJD or the LJP) confused the upper castes.

Chiranjeevi Jha, head of the Bhavanipur village panchayat and a Congress sympathiser, explained the cause of the confusion. ?Sonia Gandhi did not say if we are for or against Laloo Prasad. We are allergic to him. We know supporting the Congress means supporting Laloo Prasad because they are together in Delhi. As for us, Laloo Prasad is sheer poison.?

Jha clarified that in those constituencies where the LJP and the Congress are fighting separately, the upper castes might vote for Paswan?s party if the candidate seems likely to defeat the RJD?s. ?At least, Paswan has come out clearly against Laloo Prasad; that helps.?

Underlying the dilemma faced by the upper castes is the realisation that the transition of power to the backward castes and the Dalits is a political reality.

Dayanand Singh, a Rajput farmer in Benipur village near Patna, said: ?Before our eyes we have seen the Yadavs prospering. First came their political empowerment, then economic growth. They have land, they made money and have gone into other things like brewing illicit liquor. They have their shacks along the banks of the Ganga. The cops know about their activities but cannot do a thing because the Yadavs have patronage from the highest level.?

As for Rajputs like him, ?we did not keep up with the times. We had lots of land but we did not work and let it go waste. After the zamindari system was abolished we were forced to sell it. Today we face the humiliation of being talked down to by these backward castes?, Dayanand said.