His last poll outing was nothing to write about but Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, the chief of Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), is not the one to give up. He is already in full control, firming up alliances for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections both he , from Madhepura, and wife Ranjeeta Ranjan, from Supaul, lost the Parliamentary elections that saw NDA sweeping all but one of the 40 seats. But with the assembly elections picking pace, the four-time Lok Sabha member has already stitched a pact with Azad Samaj Party of Chandrashekhar Azad, SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) headed by MK Faizy, Bahujan Mukti Party of VL Matang and the Indian Union Muslim League, forming the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA).

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Speaking with Opoyi, Yadav said that in a couple of days this alliance would come up with a Common Minimum Programme. On the seat sharing formula likely to be followed, he said that seat sharing is not a big issue and that he was trying to bring in more partners into the PDA.

The 52-year-old politician’s foray into Assembly polls in 2015 did not meet with success either with all his candidates losing and his party garnering only 2% of the total votes polled. But, despite the setback, he is one of the most visible politicians in the state. This 6’1”, 140 kg leader, often sporting a T-shirt, can be seen everywhere — be it reaching out to people affected by floods, a family that has lost a member or a jobless migrant worker forced to return in the wake of the pandemic.

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While there is no knowing the kind of impact he will have on the upcoming polls, analysts feel that he will cut into the votes of his one-time guru Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. Political Commentator Mani Kant Thakur says, “upper caste voters are still not convinced about backing JAP candidates, though they like Pappu Yadav’s social work. In a caste-ridden election, Pappu Yadav’s JAP and Lalu Prasad’s RJD have similar votebank. Thus, it is most likely that the JAP candidates would slice the votes of RJD or Grand Alliance’s candidate.”

Pappu’s relationship with Lalu Prasad soured in 2015, when he was thrown out of the RJD for anti-party activities. “Putramoh me mujko nikal diya party se quanki unko lag raha tha ki mere rahte unka beta RJD ka utradhikari nahi bun sakega (he threw me out of the party for the sake of his son as he knew his son would not succeed him in RJD because of me),” the former MP had said.

Analysts feel that this may be Yadav’s chance to exact revenge on the ‘son’ with Lalu in jail and Tejashwi, who is at the helm, not being able to pull his flock together as efficiently.

While he is busy playing political games, his children are aceing it in other games. His son Sarthak Ranjan is a cricketer and plays for Delhi while his daughter Prakriti is a national level basketball player.