The decision taken by Lalu Prasad to raise the issue of 10 per cent quota for poor among upper castes is indeed a major shift from his erstwhile focus on Muslim-Yadav (MY) vote bank that had primarily helped him to rule Bihar for 15 years.

Besides, willy-nilly Lalu's demand of reservation for Dalit Muslims also vindicated the stand of his opposition who always charged him with hoodwinking the minority in the name of vote-bank politics. Lalu had never raised the issue of Dalit Muslims when the RJD was in power in Bihar.

Incidentally, it was Nitish Kumar who had first raised the issue of reservation for Dalit Muslims in a national forum and subsequently had sent Ali Anwar to Rajya Sabha on the JD (U) ticket from Bihar in first opportunity to focus on this issue more prominently on behalf of the party.

Unlike the alleged M-Y vote-bank politics of Lalu, Nitish in his past two-year rule tried to carve a niche for him as a non-caste leader by providing reservation to Extreme Backward Castes (EBCs) in panchayat and civic poll.

EBCs, who reportedly constitute around 25 per cent of population in the state, were by and large always denied of their due share in socio-economic development parameters.

In his bid to blur the caste divide further, Nitish also reserved 50 per cent seats for women in panchayat and civic poll irrespective of caste, creed and religion. The move saw the emergence of Dalit and Muslim women in panchayats who were now taking active participation in grassroots planning for development.

Nitish dealt yet another blow to Lalu's claim as a `messiah' for the minority by reopening the old cases in the infamous Bhagalpur riots of 1989 which had claimed over 1,000 lives. While the ruling NDA has already decided to give pension to the kin of the victims of Bhagalpur riots, it also urged the Centre to consider compensation to Bhagalpur riot victims on the pattern of Sikh riot victims of 1984.