Ankit Yadav holds his phone against the window of a white van, and clicks. Inside sits an elderly man dressed in white, a green scarf around his neck. One side bears the image of his son and Mahagathbandhan chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav; the other the ‘lantern’ symbol of the party he founded, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Lalu Prasad, 77, is in the autumn of his political career, weakened by age and illness. However, even in his absence, the RJD founder is very much a presence in these elections, in a state where the social upheaval he wrought changed its politics forever. The main line of attack of the NDA, as it seeks to retain power, is Lalu’s reign – as the CM, and the de-facto CM when wife Rabri Devi stepped in for him – and its alleged “jungle raj”.

Seeking to put distance be

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