Lalu 1.0, Lalu 2.0, or Lalu 3.0? 

The nation owes Bihar a huge thanks. What the liberals and intellectuals could not achieve in their protests was hopefully achieved by the Bihar electorate for India with their resounding rejection of the divisive politics of hatred.

Now that communalism has been rejected though, the focus will come back to development and corruption. And I would be most interested in seeing how Lalu performs in the upcoming 5 years.

Lalu v1.0, of course, was the epitome of corruption and misgovernance in the days of jungle raaj as the Bihar CM (1990-97). However, even his severest critics do concede two points: a. that he was able to improve the social (if not the economic) status of the backwards, and that he kept communalism and riots from flaring in Bihar during the 1992-93 era, and b. his appearance is deceptive and he is smarter and savvier than he looks.

After being rejected subsequently by the electorate, however, he seemed to have mended his ways, and Lalu v2.0 as the Railway Minister (2004-09) was the antithesis of the Bihar days. He performed well, and came up with innovative projects like the Garib Rath. Overall, his tenure was generally considered satisfactory to above-average. So-much-so, the IIM (at that time free of significant political pressure) invited him to give a pretty well-received lecture for its students.

What made him change? Perhaps he learnt his lessons, and realized that the caste card alone was no longer enough to guarantee victory as it was the national stage. Or perhaps it was because he was no longer the boss, but working in a larger group under a respected leader like Manmohan Singh (who was pretty good in his first term, when Lalu was the Railway Minister). Perhaps experience helped a bit as well?

Either ways, it will be interesting to see how Lalu will perform as a coalition partner in Bihar. While the stage is Bihar again, similar to v1.0, he has more experience, has burnt his hands with corruption (and facing a probable jail term), and has Nitish as his senior ally, similar to v2.0. Of course, he himself will play more of a guiding role this time, and it will be his party men and family who will be in the direct administration. Is there ground to hope for a more mature and statesman-like role, with him grooming the youngsters to learn administrative skills under Nitish, a v3.0? It will be very very interesting to watch, just like most of what Lalu does.