PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad backtracking from his ‘Hindus too eat beef’ remark, seen to have been intended to blunt Mulayam Singh Yadav and Asaduddin Owaisi’s influence over the minority vote, seems a hurried move to save the Yadav vote bank which could have taken offence to the comment.

Realizing that he might have gone too far and stepped on the sensibilities of the Yadav community who traditionally rear cattle and revere the cow, Lalu did a quick about turn, saying his tongue seemed to have been possessed by the devil in a moment of weakness. While it remains to be seen how much damage the slip up might have caused to the grand alliance of Lalu, Nitish Kumar and Congress, it certainly gave the BJP an excuse to pull the beef issue into the Bihar poll arena.

BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Modi challenged Lalu to say that the election was a contest between beef eaters and those who don’t, leading to Nitish hitting back by claiming that a desperate BJP was attempting to polarize the electorate.

Political observers feel this assembly election is a ‘do-or-die’ situation for Lalu and he cannot afford a situation where his sons lose. In an effort to correct course, he distanced himself from his statement, something which he has not done too often.

Sources close to Lalu said he made the statement to blunt the edge of third front and MIM, especially because Mulayam had named NCP leader Tariq Anwar as his front’s CM candidate.

“When he (Lalu) said ‘Hindus too eat beef’, he did not realize Yadavs would react so vehemently and the NDA would use it as a lethal weapon during election campaign,” said a source, adding there was immediate reaction even within the grand alliance and fear of his sons losing the election also gained ground within a few hours.

“Leaders from Congress, RJD and JD(U) called him and asked him to withdraw his statement immediately, or they would be forced to distance themselves from the remark. This forced him to go back on his statement, something which he had never done in his political career,” said the source.

Political analyst R K Singh said Lalu always banks on Muslim-Yadav combination, which is almost 30% of the state’s population, but this time he did a misadventure. “The damage was already done as the BJP lapped up the issue and used stalwart Yadav leaders to attack Lalu who is striving hard to keep his control over RJD. Lalu is passing through a phase where he has to establish his children in politics, otherwise he will lose control over RJD as he cannot contest due to conviction and growing age,” said Singh.

Lalu’s last gamble was to give ticket to his daughter Misa Bharati from Pataliputra seat in the last Lok Sabha poll instead of his trusted lieutenant Ram Kripal Yadav. This move backfired as the latter joined BJP and won the seat. “Lalu cannot afford any failure this time,” Singh added.

