Lalu's surprising moves is out of fear

A few months back if there was one ally the Congress could trust in the United Progressive Alliance it had to be RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav. But Lalu's moves in last two months has not only surprised the Congress but political pundits who thought they knew the Railway Minister well. The Bihar strongman has not only broken the alliance but is now accusing the Congress for the Babri Masjid demolition.

Lalu is playing to the gallery and making sure he gets maximum mileage out of Congress's failures and also at the same time be seen as a messiah of secularism. His blaming the Congress for the Babri Masjid demolition was a clear signal of being opportunist in politics. The irony is he shares the dias with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh who was the UP Chief Minister when the December 6th incident took place.

Lalu surely had made his game plan to dump the Congress long ago. He wants to have maximum bargaining powers at the centre. He presented a Congress with an unacceptable seat sharing deal and formed an alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP. If that was not enough the two leaders make a alliance with Samajwadi Party for seat sharing in UP and Bihar having a dream of forming a Fourth Front government.

There is however a tricky fact behind all his surprising moves. The election wind does not seem to be blowing towards Lalu anymore. His breaking alliance with Congress might hurt him and analysts believe his tally could be reduced to half from the current 22. Also the fact that the state has seen some development under the leadership of Nitish Kumar is worrying Lalu. This can be very well understood from the fact that he himself is contesting two seats Saran and Pataliputra.

Lalu might have been India's most successful Railway Minister with the IIMs inviting him for lectures but he seems to have lost his connection with Bihar. In the 2004 polls he had the state government under his control with his wife as the CM. This time the command of the state lies in the hands of his friend turned foe Nitish Kumar and Lalu is most likely to have a bad show in the Lok Sabha polls. This perhaps explains his surprising moves.