Father, son, and the spectre of ‘jungle raj'

Lalu Prasad was re-elected as the national president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the 13th consecutive time on June 24, 2025. No one else has held this post in the 28-year-old party. At 77 and battling persistent health issues, Mr. Lalu is no longer at the centre of active politics, but he remains the party’s mascot, one who keeps both the RJD afloat and weighs it down in equal measure.

On March 10, 1990, Mr. Lalu took oath as the 25th Chief Minister of Bihar — the first to be sworn in outside the Raj Bhavan in Patna. Though only 42 at the time, he had been in politics for more than a decade, winning four major elections: two terms in Parliament (1977 and 1989) and two in the Bihar Legislative Assembly (1980 and 1985).

At the sprawling Gandhi Maidan in Patna, a hopeful crowd loo