March Lalu began leaves him behind

With the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Jantantrik Party winning just 25 of the 243 assembly seats, Lalu Prasad’s 20-year sway over Bihar has been snuf-fed out. Even his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi lost both the seats she contested.

Lalu transformed Bihar but the very transformation he set in motion has left him behind. In the mid-1990s, he seemed invulnerable, but after Wednes-day’s drubbing, he has lost his national identity.

Where does he go from here? In politics, numbers matter and he does not have them. Whether the Congress, which has done even worse than him, will abandon its current policy and seek him out as an ally again remains to be seen.