The Jharkhand assembly polls which were conducted in five phases had the counting of votes on Monday. The BJP lost the elections and gathered only 25 seats in the 81 seat assembly. Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM)-Cong-RJD alliance won 47 seats.
A sane mind would credit this victory of the alliance to the single largest party, the JMM with 30 seats, and maybe to an extent to the Congress with 16 seats. However, what is being seen is that a criminal lodged in jail for the Fodder scam is being glorified by a section of Indian media.
According to a report which has been published by leading media houses such as TOI and India Today, Lalu is said to have convinced his son Tejashwi Yadav not to remain adamant on his demand of being given more seats for contestation by the alliance. This, somehow, has managed to ‘save’ the alliance according to these media groups.
It is but obvious that Lalu Prasad Yadav knows his politics well. He knows that for his son to demand a higher number of seats in Jharkhand is a laughable proposition. The alliance agreed to give 7 seats to the RJD. From these, the party won only in 1. This should have been an indicator to media groups who are so readily drooling over Lalu Prasad, yet, it is, as I said, only sane minds who could understand the minimal role of the RJD.
Times of India and India Today both quoted the newswire report which said: “His political career has been written off by many but RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, currently jailed in a fodder scam case in the Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi, again proved his prowess by accomplishing the BJP’s defeat in Jharkhand by preserving the opposition alliance comprising his party, the JMM and the Congress.” These media houses have not hesitated from claiming that it is only Lalu who has defeated the BJP in the state.
Twitter users reacted comically to these reports, calling out the media houses for glorifying a politician jailed for corruption, and generously crediting a political victory to him on the basis of RJD’s victory on just one seat.
https://twitter.com/BinoyJana10/status/1209095505264836609?s=20
Our fodder fed hero who triumphed with one seat from Chatra.
This headline is something else. #JharkhandResults #JharkhandElection2019Jailed Lalu Prasad beats BJP in Jharkhand from hospital bed | India News – Times of India https://t.co/qHLUqp8WR5
— Sonalika Sahay (@sonalikasahay) December 24, 2019
Only one constituency won by #RJD still #LALU defeated BJP from hospital bed..? pic.twitter.com/m0F71TBlkl
— Ashish Kumar 🇮🇳 (@aks00750) December 23, 2019
The JMM-Cong stood a fair chance even if RJD was not a part of their alliance. Their poor performance, winning only one seat, yet being glorified by the media is only an indicator as to how the media has not been able to overcome their hidden admiration for Lalu. For anyone to think that the RJD could possibly ‘defeat’ the BJP in any election would simply mean that their knowledge of politics is bare minimum.