Lalu Prasad Yadav has been most prominent political figure in Bihar and India.
While Lalu is widely appreciated for his social justice politics, his contemporary leader Nitish Kumar is known for his governance and last mile delivery of welfare schemes.
Bihar will see its future for the next five years on Friday - November 14 by electing its new assembly.
Be it political or apolitical, supporter or non supporter of Lalu Prasad Yadav, one can’t overlook his political career in Bihar and India. Rashtriya Janta Dal’s founder and supremo Yadav has risen as a champion of social justice in the Indian political landscape. Dealing with cases like fodder scams and his subsequent conviction followed by arrest, the stain of ‘Jungle Raj’, Yadav is a rare politician in India, who never compromised his ideology rooted and developed from JP’s (Jay Prakash Narayan) movement in Bihar.
As Bihar is excited to see its chief minister in a few hours from now the state’s political dynamics, its social fabric and economic issues are being discussed widely as much as the a fight between NDA’s Nitish Kumar and Mahagatbandhan’s Tejashwi Yadav who is carrying the legacy of Lalu Prasad Yadav and his politics.
Tejashwi Yadav losing the state?
JDU and BJP as an NDA retaining the driving seat of Bihar, Tejashwi is in a tough fight, far worse than his 2020 electoral fight though he appeared to carry political legacy of Lalu Prasad Yadav. While electoral wins remain relevant to the people and the state, its also important to scroll the pages of history.
Who is Lalu Prasad Yadav and why is he an important politician beyond reels, jokes and memes?
Born into poverty on June 11, 1948, in Phulwaria, Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav was the son of Kundan Rai and Marachhiya Devi, a struggling peasant family. Overcoming significant socio-economic adversity in his youth, he relocated to Patna and lived with his older brother. Yadav secured his Bachelor of Arts and later a degree of law. In the 1970s he was inspired by JP’s movement that began shaping his worldview. Yadav had no privileges of caste, class or a political legacy. He often talked about his caste location candidly in TV interviews and even now takes pride in herding cattle.
His political journey began as a student leader in the early 1970s and accelerated when he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977 as one of the youngest Members of Parliament. He became the Chief Minister of Bihar in 1990, a position he held until 1997, championing a politics focused on social justice and the upliftment of the backward caste and classes.
In 1997, following his resignation amid the Fodder Scam allegations, he founded the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), before his arrest in the fodder scam case, he made sure later his wife Rabaridevi became chief minister of Bihar - the first woman CM of Bihar.
In the political landscape of post-Mandal India, Lalu Prasad Yadav did not merely rise to power—he rewrote what power looked like. In Bihar’s soil, long tilled by feudal hierarchies, Lalu sowed a new language of politics, one that carried the cadence of the most marginalized. He spoke not from podiums of privilege, but from the courtyards of the poor, turning rustic idioms into declarations of dignity.
Many in Bihar even today say, ‘samman se sar uncha karke chalna laluji ne sikhaya, ye unki den hai.’ (LaluJi taught us to walk with pride, self esteem. That’s his huge contribution.)
For millions of Dalits, backward castes, and Muslims, Lalu was the first leader who made them feel visible. He dismantled the Brahmanical monopoly over bureaucracy and politics by placing people from the margins into state institutions—police, panchayats, and public offices. Their very presence was a quiet revolution. When he laughed, criticised the elite in public debates with his humour, sarcasm (even for socialist leader George Fernandes!) it wasn't just a performance of populism; he was eroding centuries of untouchable silence. Bihar’s politics was dominated by upper caste Hindus before Lalu’s era.
‘Social justice is our religion’ he declared, not as a slogan but as a social contract. In the 1990s, when the Mandal Commission cracked India’s caste dynamics, Lalu ensured that political power itself became the grammar of self-respect. He backed ‘Mandal’ politics over ‘Kamandal’ Rajneeti which protested against OBC reservations. Yadav was the one who stopped Lalkrishna Advani’s Rathyatra (a religious procession from Gujarat to Ayodhya) and took legal action against him in 1990.
Yadav was laughed at, mocked for his spoken English, his desi style of speeches in and outside of houses of parliament and assembly, but he stood his ground - one speech at time - from federalism to America’s stance on Iraq to secular fabric of India- he spoke about everything. He spoke about ‘Bihari identity’ (often designed by non Biharis). From poetry to sher-o shayri, mythological, historical references to ground reality, his speeches as an elected representative advocated for ‘Samatamulak Bharat’ (India as a nation based on equality) as his own words.
He gave politics a mass rooted face—speaking in Bhojpuri, wearing the coarse cotton of rural Bihar. By simply being himself, Lalu taught the poor that their identity was not a burden but a banner of entitlement. In his 1998 speech in the parliament of India he not only mentioned rising prices of potato, onions and edible oil while debating on essential commodities (amendment) bill, but he used terms like paseri (traditional unit for mass often used in rural- north India) and Karua tel (mustard oil). He often mentioned ‘sarvahara’ - proletariat- working class.
In a significant later phase of his career, he served as the most successful Union Minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009 in the UPA-1 government. In his tenure, he successfully governed Indian railways and made it profitable. Introduced ‘Gareeb rath’ express (train for poor) which offered air conditioned train travel to the poor at relatively cheaper rates.
In one of his TV interviews he said, “agar galti se koi gareeb first class, ac compartment me chadhe, toh log use bhagate hai, kyon gareeb ko haq nahin?” (If a poor mistakenly enters a first-class/ AC compartment, people insult and drive them away. Why does the poor person not have the right to travel with comfort?)
He also promoted employment opportunities for marginalized communities within the Railways. Coolies (porters) were offered permanent employment under group D or class four group by Yadav. He also spoke about Gangmen (who maintains railway tracks) in his 2006-7 budget speech for railways.
Despite record profits, Yadav refused to hike fares, ensuring affordable travel for millions while strengthening connectivity to rural and underdeveloped regions of Bihar and India. His achievement of financial success without burdening the poor, turning the Railways into a symbol of inclusive growth which later became a case study at top management and business schools. His views about public enterprise like railways can be best described in his own words.
“Yeh inaayat nahin, mera vishwas hai,
daurey mehengai mein rail sasti rahe,
apnaa inaam humko to mill jayega,
rail par aapki sarparasti rahe.”
(From Yadav’s budget speech for year 2006-7)
Ideology, Identity and delivery of good governance in Bihar
But in the context of Bihar, Yadav’s politics and governance is seen critically. Ashwani Kumar, Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and author of ‘Community Warriors; State, Peasants, and Caste Armies in Bihar’, elaborates it more.
“The evolution of welfare policy in Bihar reflects a shift from the symbolic to the substantive—from izzat (dignity) to institutionalization of social welfare, and deepening of democracy. The Lalu Yadav era was characterised by what has been called “democracy without development,” where welfare politics emphasised symbolic social justice—asserting dignity (izzat) and political voice for lower castes and the poor—without prioritising state-led service delivery or institutionalised welfare.” says Kumar.
Kumar also offers a comparative analysis of Yadav and his prominent contemporary leader Nitish Kumar who was the chief minister of Bihar for 20 years.
“Nitish Kumar’s governments, by contrast, made social welfare the pivot of governance and development. Building on the moral and political legitimacy of Mandal led lower caste’s silent revolution, Nitish Kumar reoriented welfare toward material redistribution, women’s and lower-caste representation in PRIs, last-mile delivery, and lifecycle entitlements—especially for women, EBCs, and Dalits. Schemes such as the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana, Kanya Utthan Yojana, and the Jeevika networks redefined welfare as both a tool of inclusion and a mode of governance.The major shift, therefore, lies in transforming welfare from a language of dignity into a system of entitlements.” Aswani Kumar adds.
Reservation for women and lower castes in Panchayati Raj institutions under Nitish Kumar’s leadership, Bihar’s welfare architecture recasts women not as passive recipients of freebies but as entrepreneurs, civic actors, and autonomous political constituencies, Ashwani Kumar underlines.
But as far as electoral wins are concern Lalu's era & values he stood for along with controversies, is drastically becoming a part of history, what remained relevant in Bihar's current political dynamics from Lalu's career is a narrative of 'Jungle Raj'.
Its time for the Yadavs to see a political metamorphosis- one that is deeply rooted in values that they believe, yet translating ideas into current times!
(With inputs from Ashlin Mathew)
