Bastion falls, Paswan now has nowhere to go
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Patna, November 25, 2010First Published: 01:42 IST(25/11/2010)
Ram Vilas Paswan, who created a world record by winning his Vaishali
seat by a margin of more than 6 lakh votes in 1977 has been finished
with the same impact as the record he created. The man who wished to
be the country's first Dalit prime minister and who had crafted the
art of political related stories
Lalu's bag of tricks fails
survival without ever having the numbers into a fine art, may not make
a comeback this time. For, his guru, Lalu Prasad, who got him a seat
in the Rajya Sabha after his defeat in the parliamentary elections in
2009, is himself incapable of coming back and Paswan may not find
another backer for a very long time.
Paswan has been a family man - in power and out of it. While Lalu
Prasad had his brothers-in-law to support him, Paswan had his
brothers. But like Prasad, he went down like a rock in a pond in the
electoral debate over development versus caste.
Paswan's political ground had always been one-dimensional, sticking to
his own caste with the support of a smattering of upper caste toughs
as opposed to Lalu Prasad's multi-dimensional appeal in his heyday.
With even Paswans rejecting him this time -as is apparent in the
results from the Vaishali-Samastipur arc, the fort of extremely
backward castes he led, Paswan had to fall by the wayside.
Paswan has no role now, except being a Rajya Sabha MP for the next
five years. Beyond that, he is not equipped to take centrestage
whether
in alliance or alone - for he is neither a Dalit leader of standing
like Mayawati whom he opposes nor does he have the clout to rise above
single-caste politics.
Paswan must be credited for pursuing development politics -- the most
famous of his efforts being establishing the East Central Railways
headquarters in Hajipur. But if this very constituency, which
benefited heavily because of him, decided to reject him this time,
where does he go?
Apparently nowhere. Number game
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