In the 1956 elections he ran against Prasad, but received only 109 votes. However, in 1958 he was elected to Lautoka Town Council with the support of the local ratepayers association. After the departure of Sidiq Koya from the Central Committee of the Kisan Sangh, Muslim supporters of the organisation were alienated. They supported Lakshman in the 1959 elections, in which he defeated Prasad. In the same year he was elected president of the Fiji Trades Union Congress. He did not contest the 1963 elections and although He put up his name for a number of other elections, he did not launch a serious campaign and remained out of politics for most of the rest of his life.