For the first time during the ongoing election campaigning in Bihar, ailing RJD chief Lalu Prasad held a roadshow, on October 3.
The RJD supremo was on campaign trail for the sake of Ritlal Yadav, the RJD's incumbent MLA from Danapur, who is now seeking re-election from the assembly constituency in Patna district and is not in a position to campaign.
This is because Ritlal has been lodged in the state's Bhagalpur jail since April 2025 as an undertrial in an extortion case; one of over 40 criminal cases filed against him, including that of the alleged murder of BJP leader Satyanarayan Sinha back in 2005.
What has ostensibly forced Lalu to step out for Ritlal's campaign, knowing fully well that the move could bolster the 'jungle raj' allegations his NDA rivals level against him and his party. However, the RJD leader is willing to overlook the RJD candidate's chequered past since he is more interested in targeting the BJP nominee pitted against him.
The mighty betrayal
Taking on the jailed Ritlal in Danapur is BJP leader and former MP Ramkripal Yadav, who was once counted amongst Lalu’s closest aides. After a bitter falling out with Lalu ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Ramkripal quit the RJD to embrace the BJP - a defection still talked about in Patna as a mighty betrayal.
It wasn't, however, the 'betrayal' alone that hurt Lalu but what followed shortly thereafter.
In the 2014 polls, Lalu’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti made her electoral debut as the RJD candidate from Patliputra and faced off against Ramkripal, who had been fielded by the BJP. Many in Patna's political circles believed it was Lalu's insistence to field Misa from Patliputra that was responsible for Ramkripal's exit from the RJD, as the latter had been eyeing his electoral comeback from this seat, after opting out of the electoral race five years earlier.
In an election defined by acrimonious exchange of personal attacks between Ramkripal and the Lalu clan, it was ultimately Ramkripal who prevailed. Misa lost her electoral debut to Ramkripal by a margin of 40,322 votes, which was nearly twice the margin with which Lalu too had lost the seat in 2009 to the JD-U's Ranjan Prasad Yadav.
In 2019, Misa made her second bid at wresting the Patliputra seat from Ramkripal but failed again; the BJP's lead over the RJD suffering only a marginal dent as Ramkripal polled 39,321 votes higher than Misa this time.
It was only a decade after Ramkripal's betrayal that Misa was able to wrest Patliputra. In her third attempt, bolstered as much by sympathy for the ailing and frequently jailed Lalu as it was by the assiduous and well-oiled Opposition campaign against the BJP, Misa managed to finally defeat Ramkripal from Patliputra last year by a margin of over 85,000 votes - a lead that was more than twice the margin in her previous two defeats.
Not an ordinary contest
Many believed that the defeat had brought Ramkripal's political career to a grinding halt. For the past year, the former Lalu aide had largely been on the sidelines of the BJP in Bihar, desperately awaiting 'political rehabilitation' or at least a shot to avenge his humiliating poll defeat.
The upcoming election has now given Ramkripal that chance but for Lalu it is also another shot at what RJD leaders call "teaching the traitor a lesson". And so, the fight for Danapur has become much more than an ordinary contest for an Assembly seat that Lalu himself has represented twice in what now seems like the distant past.
Danapur seat
The Danapur constituency comprises approximately four lakh voters, with Yadavs, an OBC group, making up a significant 22 per cent of the electorate. Scheduled Caste (SC) voters account for about 12 per cent, while Muslims represent roughly 6 per cent of the voter base.
The Danapur constituency comprises approximately four lakh voters, with Yadavs, an OBC group, making up a significant 22 per cent of the electorate.
In the last Assembly election, Ritlal ended the BJP’s successive four-time winning streak on the seat. The BJP is also equally anxious to wrestle back its seat. For that reason, the saffron party has already made four of its chief ministers – Yogi Adityanath, Rekha Gupta, Mohan Yadav and Nayab Singh Sahni – to conduct a high-pitched campaign.
RJD pulls out the stops
Interestingly, Ritlal Yadav's teenage daughter caught the attention of the public during Lalu’s first ever roadshow this election in Bihar. Alongside RJD chief Lalu and his daughter Misa Bharti, the party’s message was laden with symbolism in its 15 km-long show held from Patna’s Marine Drive to Shivala Mor.
The jailed RJD candidate Ritlal's 16-year-old daughter Shweta Singhania has been actively campaigning for her absent father
“People have assured me their support,” 16-year-old Shweta Singhania, daughter of Ritlal, told The Federal. Third among her siblings, Singhania has been campaigning for her jailed father. Ritlal has four children – two daughters and two sons.
“Papa se zyada kuch zaroori nahi hota duniya mein. Mere Papa ko saazish ke tehat phasaya gaya hai…saazish 8 mahine pehle shuru ho chukka tha (Nothing in this world is more important than one's father. My father has been jailed under a well-thought out conspiracy…Conspiracy had started eight months prior to elections,” she told The Federal.
An RJD leader at Ritlal’s office at Kothuma said while the party appears to be strong in the rural areas, it is also focussing on the urban belt as well. Rural voters in the constituency make up about 33.92 per cent vote share, while urban voter share constitutes 66.09 per cent.
Lalu draws crowds
Realising that the voter strength for the RJD appeared weak in the urban areas of the constituency, RJD roped in its top man into the campaign. “Government is going to change on November 14,” Lalu told the crowd.
It is difficult to traverse inside the labyrinthine lanes of Danapur but Lalu's roadshow drew massive crowds, reminding many of the era when the RJD chief lorded over Bihar's political landscape.
Krishna Manjhi, a Dalit from the Musahar community, speaks in Lalu's defence strongly even while remaining silent on Ritlal. “Lalu Yadav did no wrong. It has always been his party men,” he said.
Krishna Manjhi, a Dalit from the Musahar community, defends RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav strongly even while remaining silent on Ritlal
At Haridaspur, MD Azad from Nat caste, peeved at the way cart vendors and other small businesses face repeated evictions at the hands of authorities now, too recalls the Lalu era. “The poor vendors are not allowed to sell their merchandise on roadsides now. Where will the poor go?” Azad questioned. And pointed out that "there wasn't such harassment under Lalu rule".
Haridaspur has 50 households and Lalu’s 15-kilometer long roadshow touched the electorate here, it seems.
Nitish Kumar missing
Meanwhile, 0n November 4, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar was missing from the NDA’s roadshow in the Danapur constituency.
In public circles, the talk is that the Nitish loyalist faction within the JD(U) want their cadre to vote 'judiciously' in the constituency. The constituency has a chunk of EBC population who could tilt the balance in the battle of Yadavs.
