Muslims ... had overwhelmingly voted in favour of Laloo Yadav in the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 1995 and 1996, respectively, for ensuring a communal riot-free environment in the state. Now the community has shifted its focus to demand such as better education and greater job opportunities, areas in which Laloo Yadav has delivered little. This apart, the Janata Dal has been systematically trying to undercut Laloo's Muslim vote base by seeking to divide them along backward-forward lines. JD candidate in Darbhanga Ghulam Sarwar has floated a Backward Muslim Morcha with a view to weaning away the numerically preponderant Backward Muslims from Laloo's fold.

The Morcha claims that backward sections within the Muslims have got a raw deal under successive state governments (and) that despite his social justice plank, the Laloo regime has mostly accommodated forward Muslims in important positions. ... Laloo's stock has also come down among his ardent admirers because of his total unconcern for development issues. Everywhere in his campaign trail, people raise the issues of price rise and lack of electricity and irrigation facilities. Laloo tries to skirt these issues by asides and innuendoes, but it is obvious that it does not cut much ice with the people.                                                                                                                                     (Source: The Times of India, 14 February, 1998)