Tuesday, November 22 2005 18:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: The magic of Lalu Prasad, the most enduring mascot of Mandal politics, who held sway over Bihar in a manner no leader ever did, appeared to have faded as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed for a landslide victory marking the end of the 15-year-old Lalu-Rabri regime.

Prophets of doom were proved right as the self-proclaimed Raja of Bihar, fighting the assembly elections while out of power for the first time in 15 years, went down largely due to the anti-incumbency factor.

The man, who first ruled the state personally and then by proxy through his semi-literate wife whom he pulled out straight from kitchen to head the cabinet with nobody in his party daring to protest, weathered many a political storm, including the Fodder scam, but retained a firm hold on power.

Lalu's partner in the Centre's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, despite best efforts in the last assembly elections, failed to put Lalu in harm's way as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged the single-largest party with 75 seats.

The RJD strongman had banked on consolidation of secular votes with Congress, which had entered into half-baked alliances with both RJD and LJP in the last polls.

Though the Congress jettisoned the LJP and allied with RJD to see him through, it had little fathomed the magnitude of the anti-incumbency factor, which finally did him in.

What Paswan's determined bid to chip away at Lalu's assiduously nurtured Muslim vote bank could not achieve, was done by the anti-incumbency factor built up over 15 years.

The Lalu-Rabri regime, which the NDA chose to describe as 'jungle raj' was marked by allegations of nepotism, non-development and a series of financial scandals.

But a master of social engineering, Lalu dexterously managed caste equations in his favour to dominate the state's political landscape.

His rustic demeanor was a major asset, as he appeared one among the dispossessed. He meticulously cultivated this to stay in power.

"I gave self-respect and self-esteem to the masses suffering in the feudalist society of Bihar," he often said.

The Ram Rath Yatra of BJP in early 1990s, saw him emerge as one of the greatest champions of the Muslims after he arrested BJP President L K advani at Samastipur.

The Lalu-Rabri reign will go down in history as one in which no major communal riot took place.

As several parts of India saw communal conflagrations in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, Bihar remained peaceful and this earned Lalu the epithet of 'the Messiah of Muslims' apart from being 'the Messiah of the poor' and not without reason.

The 57-year-old leader, born into a poor milkman's family at Phulwaria village in Gopalganj district in the rural backwaters of Bihar, is a saga of huge successes.

Lalu, who was elected as president of the Patna University Students Union in 1973, had his baptism in big-time politics under legendary Jayaprakash Narayan whom he is said to have persuaded to lead the students' agitation.

This ultimately blossomed into a mass movement that led to the imposition of Emergency and subsequent installation of the first non-Congress government at the Centre.