The man who brought Lalu down
Kumar, who was born in Bakhtiarpur in Patna district and has an engineering degree from Bihar Engineering College, was part of Jayaprakash Narayan's students movement in the 1970s. Just as Lalu was.
Kumar was in the 21-member steering committee of JP's movement, and was known as the only one who could talk in English with journalists.
Kumar now says when Lalu declared the implementation of the Mandal Commission's recommendations on reservation for backward castes, he objected, because the Extremely Backward Castes were not recognised as a separate caste slab by the Commission. It was this, he says, that led to the rift between him and Lalu.
Actually, Kumar broke away from Lalu because he realised that Lalu was never going to let him do anything more than play second fiddle.
Image: Kumar joins L K Advani to lead the march of Bihar NDA legislators to meet the President against the decision to dissolve the Bihar assembly in February 2005.
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