India, Dec. 2 -- It was an election for 243 assembly seats in one state of the country but the Mahagatbandhan, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Opposition bloc, believed it would herald a sea change in the country's political trajectory. After all, the land of secularism and socialism had scripted unexpected changes in the past.

Many Muslims were influenced by this powerful narrative as they had witnessed the JP movement of the 1970s in Bihar; and, again, in the early 1990s, it was here that the chariot of Lal Krishna Advani, leading the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, was stopped by Lalu Prasad Yadav.

In 2025, his young son, Tejashwi Yadav made a strong bid for power along with the Congress as an ally. By now, much of their anger against t...