In Parliament a week ago, the RJD, or its star speaker Lalu Prasad Yadav, was seen to hold up one end of the crucial trust vote debate. In Patna, only days after the trust vote was won, the RJD stalled the five-day Assembly session that came to an end on Wednesday.

There was another point of political contrast in the turbulence in the two Houses. In the Bihar Assembly, the RJD worked in unison with the Left parties — the CPM, CPI and CPML — while the RJD and Left ranged themselves on opposing sides of the political divide at the Centre ever since the Left pulled out support from the UPA on the issue of the nuclear deal.

Elaborating on the “combined” Opposition strategy, RJD legislator and national spokesperson Shyam Rajak told The Indian Express: “RJD, Left and Congress had decided on stalling House proceedings if special debates were not allowed. The entire Opposition is one on matters concerning the people”.

Lone CPI(M) legislator Ramdev Verma conceded the Opposition was “united” on some matters, but insisted that there is no more than meets the eye. “It was I who first took up the matter of the discrepancy between the BPL/APL lists. The RJD lapped it up later. It is only that the RJD has the bigger number in the House”. Said Verma, “Laluji may be singing love songs to us in Parliament and dropping hints of a possible alliance in Bihar, but we will keep a safe distance from him. After the UPA’s winning the trust vote at the Centre, Lalu’s aggressive body language suggests that the party has switched into poll mode,” said the CPI(M) leader.

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