"It was a mistake that regional leaders could not unite. BJP got complete advantage of this failure," said Prasad on Sunday, adding, "the Mughals and the British ruled because powerful Indian emperors were divided among themselves."
Nitish Kumar had mooted Third Front before the Lok Sabha election but collapsed even before it took shape as talks among regional leaders failed.
"This is true that they (regional leaders) could not realize the importance of such a front at the right moment. Efforts were made but because of their ego and their jamat (second-rung leaders) it could not happen," Lalu said, adding that it would have been difficult for BJP to overpower Third Front.
However, Lalu and Nitish realized the mistake fast enough to unite before the Bihar bypolls. "Together we got 46% vote share in Bihar (byelections). We got 29% and Nitish (JD-U) got 17% votes. It would have been extremely difficult for BJP had Nitish and Lalu been together during the Lok Sabha polls or there would have been a united front against BJP," he said. The Lalu-Nitish union worked wonders and RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance won six of the 10 assembly seats in Bihar.
Lalu however did not say if it was Nitish Kumar's ego which caused the fall. It seems that some of the regional satraps also share Lalu's regrets because the offshoots of erstwhile Janata Parivar recently gathered at the residence of Mulayam Singh Yadav and decided to forge a common platform to corner Narendra Modi government during the upcoming winter session of parliament.
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