Maths In A Poll Match

Many trains crisscrossed the Ganga—and the Hooghly—since Rashtriya Janata  Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee crossed swords over the performance of the railways. That was then, when the two were railway ministers in the ten-year UPA rule, each taking turns to head the national transporter. Mamata dogpiled on Lalu since assuming charge in 2009 and belittled her predecessor’s claims of a phenomenal turnaround in the cash-strapped railways on his watch as political whataboutery. Lalu disliked her and the feeling was mutual. Cut to 2021, the ailing Bihari patriarch, serving a long sentence for a fodder scam, is firmly behind his once bete noire as she battles a snapping-at-the-heels BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections staggered over eight phases this March-April. Forged on old anvils, they have a common axe to grind—much like my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

The imprisoned Lalu deputed son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to meet Mamata in Calcutta and extend the RJD’s unequivocal support to her. “It is Laluji’s decision. Our first priority is to stop the BJP from coming to power in Bengal,” the 31-year-old Yadav leader said after meeting Bengal chief minister on March 1. Mamata reciprocated Tejashwi’s gesture. Recalling her ties with Lalu and their mut­ual respect, she said the RJD president had not been released from jail bec­ause the NDA knew they would lose elections if Laluji is out and about. “When we are fighting, it is brother Tejashwi who is fighting. We are tog­ether,” she said, dropping ample hints that the RJD would not contest in Bengal.

In any case, the equation became clear a day before the Mamata-Tejashwi meeting when he chose to skip the joint rally of the Left and Congress in Calcutta, alt­hough his party heads an alliance with the Congress and Left in his home state. They fought the Bihar polls in November together. Tejashwi appears to have learned the ropes. In Bengal, the RJD has chosen to support Mamata instead of its Bihar allies, hedging its bets on a party politically way much stronger in Bengal than the Left-Congress alliance. Tejashwi appealed to Biharis living in Bengal to keep “communal forces” at bay. “This election is all about protecting Bengal and its culture,” he added.

Further east in Assam, the RJD is backing the Congress-led alliance, the main challenger to the ruling BJP. The party plans to contest a few seats having a sizeable Hindi-speaking population, especially Biharis. During his recent two-day visit to Assam, Tejashwi met state Congress president Ripun Bora and Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, president of the All India United Democratic Front, apparently to explore the possibility of contesting the polls. The RJD is unlikely to win any seat, but it wants to expand its base with Tejashwi as its face. His stocks went up after he spearheaded the mah­agathbandhan against the Nitish Kumar-led NDA last year.

Back in Bihar, RJD leaders explain that the party’s sole objective is to strengthen secular parties in their fight against the BJP. Whichever party/alliance is the strongest against the BJP gets the RJD’s support. The Bengal-Assam polls serve a template for Tejashwi to test political waters outside the comfort zone of his home state. Any success paves the road to national politics, the path his father took so eloquently.