NEW DELHI - India’s ‘Fourth Front’ fell flat on its face in the current Lok Sabha elections.

The combine of Lalu, Paswan and Mulayam, which had boasted that the Congress could not come to power without its support, on May 16 found itself in a shambles, unable to retain even half of the 64 seats won by them in 2004.

The regional RJD, LJP and SP, which had fought independently despite being in the UPA, were in for worst drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.

Having made the “big mistake” of not contesting jointly with Congress, these parties faced reverses in their strongholds of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

In Bihar, the biggest defeat of this election was that of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who once held the Guinness record for winning with the highest margin of 424,000 votes in 1977 from Hajipur. LJP had contested eight seats last time and won four.

Paswan had represented the seat eight times — 1977, 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who hedged his bets by contesting from Saran and Pataliputra Lok Sabha seats, lost from Pataliputra, but won from Saran. RJD had won 22 of the 40 seats last time, when it had contested 26 seats.

This time it contested 28 seats in alliance with LJP and SP, without any tie up with Congress, a decision described by Prasad as a “big mistake”.

The Samajwadi Party, which extended outside support to the UPA after the Left parted ways, has won 23 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The ‘Fourth Front’ got the worst mauling in Bihar where NDA virtually swept the polls.       (PTI)