Chariot Race Before The Interval

Laloo will be on a new rath with state-of-the-art decor but under the old name (‘garib rath’) coined by his brother-in-law Subhash Yadav. Ram Vilas Paswan will tour on his ‘vikas rath’. One junior RJD minister Dadan Yadav, denied a ticket and contesting independently, doesn’t like his ‘parivartan rath’ being compared to Advani’s. Says he: "If I have my way, I’ll deflate that communal rath."

At last count, there will be over a dozen raths that Advani will have to compete with in Bihar. With more and more politicians using fancily-painted vehicles for their campaigning, many believe the uday yatra may have no novelty value. In fact, riding a rath is passe in Lalooland. When Narendra Modi rode on his hi-tech chariot, it made news. Now, independent mla Munna Shukla’s ‘Vaishali rath’, not unlike Modi’s triumphal chariot, is fitted with a TV, a CD player, a laptop and a hydraulic platform. Rajan Tewari, another independent mla with equal firepower, will ride on his ‘ekta rath’ that has cutouts of horses on either side of the bonnet. Minister of state for jails Ashok Choudhary has named his vehicle ‘Rajiv sandesh rath’. Pappu Yadav’s ‘Yuva Shakti rath’ is ready to hit the roads, but the Purnea MP in the dissolved Lok Sabha is now in jail after his bail plea was rejected by the Supreme Court in a murder case.

Clearly, potholes notwithstanding, Bihar’s politicians want to make the state the rath capital of India.