[48] In May 2004, Lalu contested the general election from Chhapra and Madhepura against Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sharad Yadav respectively and won both seats with a good margin.

[60] In 2009, Lalu's successor Mamata Banerjee and the opposition parties alleged that the so-called turnaround of the Railways during his tenure was merely a result of presenting financial statements differently.

He was criticised for neglecting development, but a study conducted during his reign, among downtrodden Musahars revealed that despite the construction of houses for them not being concluded at required pace, they are obliged to choose him as their leader as he returned them their ijjat (honour) and for the first time they are allowed to vote as per their own wishes.

Some of these being establishment of Charvaha schools, where children of poor could get skilled; abolishment of cess on toddy and making of the negligence of rules related to reservation for "Backward Castes" as cognizable offence.

This marked the beginning of, what came to be known as 'Total politics' in which the identity of caste, class and religion came to be manipulated and exploited by the new state elite to retain and remain in power forever.

There witnessed a hike in incidents of corruption, because the upper-caste bureaucrats utilised the 'lack of knowledge' in administration of the new legislators (from the OBC background) to stealthily sabotage and subvert constructive policies of the Lalu's government.

Meanwhile, the resurgence of the OBCs and SCs also resulted in extension of patronage to many of the Bahubalis ( a term representing someone with money and muscle power with criminal background) from these social groups.

[80] Lalu's aide Brij Bihari Prasad, who was known for his muscle power ended the crime empire of Devendra Dubey, that was spread from East Champaran to Muzaffarpur district.

[82] A popular opinion outside Bihar with respect to weakening of bureaucracy and "breakdown of governance" was the presence of rampant corruption and leadership's ineptitude in Lalu's regime.

[85] Nandini Gooptu has mentioned some studies from the rural Bihar, belonging to the time period following the coming into power of Lalu Prasad, where the Schedule Castes like Musahars became vocal for their rights including wages, for the work they do under 'employment guarantee schemes' of government.

Many changes were observed at the lowest level of governance too; in one such case, a Rajput landlord family was replaced by a Kevat caste man for the post of Mukhiya in a village.

In the areas around Nalanda and Aurangabad, the weakening of the CPI-ML liberation is attributed to the significant rise of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Lalu Prasad.

Due to similar economic condition, the poor Yadavs in the region, mingled with the Musahars, their children play with each other and they behaved as a single social unit.

[89] In some of the regions of the rural area of South Bihar, after the establishment of rule of Janata Dal under Lalu Prasad, the realignment in the policy of militant organisations like Maoist Communist Centre was observed.

Maoist Communist Centre of India, one of the most significant Naxalite group also sided with the interest of OBCs, and the MCC activists started providing armed backing to the Most Backward Classes and the Schedule Castes to exercise their franchise in order to led the candidates of Lalu's party towards victory.

Thus, while most of the backward classes still reposed their faith in democratic struggle, a section of OBCs were attracted towards non-democratic ideas and organisations to confront the forward castes.

As per narrative, Lalu Prasad believed that the investment by state in physical infrastructure were somehow meant for benefitting the upper castes, who were having significant presence at the higher level of bureaucracy and in professional services.

One reason behind this was step taken by Kumar for exclusion of well off section of the Backward Castes from the benefits of reservation in government jobs and other state sponsored program for social upliftment.

It is observed that for their plight, in the struggle against Dalit dominated naxal groups like MCC, Bhumihars prefer to blame Lalu, who is described as a champion of lower castes.

In April 2003, he is reported to have organised a great rally at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, which was aimed at radicalising his lower caste supporters and mobilising them against the politics of Bhartiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

He said that, this implement (Lathi) of the rural poor, which was considered as the weapon of weak, will destroy the Trishul of hatred (an implicit attack on BJP's and VHP's politics of religion).

Bhatia describes an event being sponsored by Janata Dal legislator Shyam Rajak for the entertainment of rallyites, symbolising the acquaintance of the Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad with the taste of his rural supporters.

In 2022, Lalu led election of a Dalit woman, Munni Rajak from Dhobi caste (washerman) to the seventy-five membered Bihar Legislative Council.

[114] Lalu Prasad was convicted and jailed in the second Fodder Scam case of ₹8.927 million[115] on the same day 23 December 2017 when his daughter Misha Bharti was also charged by the Enforcement Directorate of having disproportionate assets.

[121] This case, pertaining to the scamming Lalu Prasad has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of ₹139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Jharkhand's Ranchi on 15 February 2022.

[124] Investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), against Lalu, his wife, son Tejashwi, daughter Misha and others, arose from the alleged illegal proceeds of the 2005 Indian Railway tender scam.

[126][127] The Bihar government said that official procedure was duly followed in the case and prima facie no evidence of irregularity has come into light in zoo soil deal.

(Updated: 31 May 2020)[128] Lalu Prasad was convicted in the controversial Fodder Scam, and was serving a term until 17 April 2021, when he was granted bail from the Jharkhand High Court in the corruption scandal.

[10][129] Lalu Prasad is one of the first noted politicians to lose parliamentary seat on being arrested in fodder scam as per Supreme Court decision banning convicted legislators to hold their posts.

The Yadavs hence transformed their assertiveness to the upward mobility in the politics only while the other "Backward Castes" gained momentum in the other fields, though still the upper-caste dominance was retained in upper echelon of bureaucracy.