The Lok Sabha elections left the Indian National Congress a disarrayed political entity with little hope of its recovery. It was no more a political party but only a family fiefdom. The Other Backward classes posed a threat to the NaMo designs to bring major regions under his domination. The Bihar assembly polls turned into a major war from a routine electoral combat with contest between two forces engaged in outwitting each other.

The Prime Minister was under no illusion for he recognized the strength of his opponent Nitish Kumar who had learnt his lessons from the Lok Sabha polls. He bent before Lalu Prasad Yadav to achieve unity of their strength. Mulayam Singh Yadav lent a support not only in consolidation of other castes but also acceptance of Nitish Kumar as the leading light. The Congress saw opportunity of survival in joining them. Everyone except Nitish had underestimated base of Lalu Yadav. They were in for a surprise with Lalu Yadav taking away 80 of 100 seats contested.

The Bihar election was a first major challenge for the Prime Minister as he had to prove his new economic agenda as a winning card. He had no alternative either since he did not hope to romp home to power with less than thirty per cent of the electorate comprising of the upper castes. He may have hoped to win few stray votes from the Muslim community with his secular stance, an inevitable need for the international comity. He could not be the prime minister of a section only to fight the election on the old party agenda. Wining a large chunk of educated among the OBCs could alone provide him an opportunity to turn tables on his opponents. He could not sell the drama of a bright economic future to educated young only because sections within his camp did not want him to win, and certainly not on the economic agenda that would render them into an irrelevant political entity.

The threat over the Reservations, only crumb made available to the Dalit and the OBCs since independence sent the educated young also scurrying to the Nitish camp to dash high hopes of NaMo. He made attempts to assure them that he would never agree to scrap the policy of reservations. However threat of review of the policy was held out by the person who was for years the authority and whose word was he law for its political wing. His demand for review came at the time when voters in Bihar were lining up for delivering their political mind through their ballot.

No one can accuse Mohan Bhagwat of inability to read the consequence of his open demand for virtually scrapping the benefits that were the only hope for deprived classes. NaMo may have seen the design but he was riding a tiger. He could not get off in the midst of the battle. His managers did realize the impact to rejuvenate the campaign by increasing number of his visits to Bihar to address the election meetings even at the block levels. But erasing consequence of the threat was not an easy task.

Sudden eruption of communal politics in several parts was timed to the start of voting. They were not without deliberate attempt to upset the electoral calculations. The incidents achieved the purpose of driving even undecided Muslim votes to the opponents. Yet another miscalculation was to isolate Lalu Yadav to terrorize other castes by attacking him as perpetrator of the anarchy in the state. It was not comprehended that Lalu Yadav could not have won three elections without votes of communities other than the Yadav. The upper caste domination in the power corridors for centuries had not delivered any better results for them except the anarchy. The singled out attacks on Lalu Yadav helped him to consolidate his traditional vote bank and also help Nitish Kumar and the Congress to gain in their constituencies.

The ambivalence of the BJP in naming the future leader in the state after the election also contributed its share to the poor show. It caused apprehensions in minds of upper castes as the low voting patterns in urban areas suggests indecisive attitude of the traditional vote bank, even if the Sangh is not accused of hinting them of not voting for the new agenda.

May be the group opposed to rise of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a political power of unequal strength succeeded in the game for now but they also acted as a catalyst to prove what the Other Backward Classes can achieve by their unity. The BJP lost not only Bihar but it also underwrote its uncertain future in Uttar Pradesh where it would face similar situation two years later. Despite the demonstrative differences between Mulayam and the duo of the OBC politics in Bihar, they would combine their strength in UP as well for their stakes are no more personal power but consolidation of their vote base. They cannot wrest power from the upper castes without their consolidation in other states.

Many cynics predict that Nitish Kumar would not be able to deliver stable governance despite acceptance by Lalu Yadav. However they overlook that the Bihar results have opened flood gates of new opportunities for Lalu Yadav to consolidate the OBCs in other states not organized under a single command. Lalu Yadav would certainly walk into them with his decisive victory in Bihar. It opens for him road to Delhi.