Lalu Prasad addresses a meeting at Ekma on Tuesday. Picture by Ragvendra Singh

Maharajganj, May 28: Lalu Prasad hopes that another “R” — adding to the already tried-tested and successful M-Y formula — would do wonders for the RJD in the Maharajganj by-election.

Nitish Kumar, already a proven “susashak” (able administrator) for the voters, banks on the Bhumihar support base and a first-time candidate with clean image.

Development and relatively improved law and order situation are Nitish’s USP. But Maharajganj — the north Bihar’s dusty Lok Sabha constituency — is a typical synonym to broken and back-breaking roads, ubiquitous unlit villages and woefully poor health and education infrastructure.

Interestingly, hardly anyone thinks infrastructure is the key to the June 2 bypoll success. Rather, Lalu, chief minister Nitish and their candidates are counting the caste groups — a known strategy before the elections — in their favour.

Amidst the talks of castes dominating the conversation on streets, the Yadav chieftain, Lalu, and his party’s formidable nominee and Rajput strongman, Prabhunath Singh, who has represented Maharajganj thrice in the Lok Sabha, are working hard to make M-Y-R (Muslim-Yadav-Rajput) combination.

Since 2005, Lalu’s famed M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination got effectively demolished by the JD(U)-BJP’s extremely backward classes (EBCs), Mahadalits, upper castes and part of the Muslims combination topped up with Nitish’s susashan (good governance) in successive elections.

The M-Y fell far behind the Law-Kush (Kurmi- Koiri), EBC, upper castes and part of the Muslims stitched together enabling Nitish to dislodge the Lalu-Rabri regime in 2005, notching up 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 and record an unprecedented victory by securing 206 of the 243 Assembly seats in 2010.

But Lalu — arguably the most effective operator of caste weapons — and his archrival-cum-new-found friend Prabhunath are effectively trying to give shape to the new combination of M-Y-R putting Nitish’s equation and his party’s Bhumihar candidate P.K. Shahi, a rookie in electoral politics, under heavy pressure.

“Yaduvanshis aur Raghubanshis ekattha ho gaye hain....koi mayee ka laal inhe nahi hara sakta (Yaduvanshi, descendents of the mythical king Yadu known as the Yadavs, and Raghubanshis, descendents of the king Raghu known as the Rajputs, are united this time.. no mother has a son to defeat them),” said Prabhunath while campaigning with Lalu in Maharajganj.

Prabhunath’s claim does not appear off the mark here. “Maharajganj mein Yadav or Rajput agar ek saath vote kar dein to kila fatah hai. Aur es baar yahi hoga (If Yadavs and Rajputs vote together in Maharajganj, the battle is won. It will happen this time),” said Bhubaneshwar Singh (45), a Rajput at Mane village on the Chhapra-Ekma road, on the sidelines of the Lalu-Prabhunath rally at Ekma.

Nitish’s “goodwill” with the deprived sections — EBCs and Mahadalits — is quite pronounced also. “Hum log to Nitish ko hi vote dengein..hame vridha pension aur ahmare bachon ko cycle of poshak milta hai (We will surely vote for Nitish; we get old-age pension and our children uniform and cycles),” said Santlal Ram of Aamdarhi village.

If Lalu-Prabhunath’s M-Y-R formulation works in Maharajganj, it will herald a new era in the political annals in the rest of the state. The Rajputs have seldom voted with the Yadavs in the last 23 years particularly after Lalu becoming a champion of the Mandal Commission in the early 1990s and antagonising all the upper castes, including the Rajputs.

Probably, Nitish’s aggressive “care” for the EBCs and Mahadalits and his move to ensure their more participation in power through reservation in local bodies have created a common cause for the militant Yadavs and Rajputs to bury their hatchet and unite them to write a new script in the state’s caste equations.

Prabhunath FIR

An FIR has been registered at Bhagwanpur police station in Siwan district against Prabhunath Singh for allegedly misbehaving with trainee IAS, Amit Ranjan Ghosh, and district agriculture officer Bharat Pratap Singh on Monday.

At Bhagwanpur market, the officers stopped a vehicle of Prabhunath’s cavalcade that did not have the Election Commission’s approval. Prabhunath later was caught in a brawl with the officers. He also allegedly snatched Ghosh’s video camera.