Bihar election results gave quite a bit of shock to BJP. Most
of the analysts got it wrong to understand the mood of the Biharis, at least
those 63% who voted for a progressive India (Bihar). Bihar is no more home to
snake charmers and rat eaters (the Mahadalit community Ex-chief minister Jitan
Manjhi belongs to). Bihar produces larger number of IAS, IIT goers and arguably
home to some of the best minds of India. Unfortunately, it simultaneously
contains the largest backward caste and economically weaker section, thanks to
Lalu’s jungle raj tthat took a toll in the development of Bihar, when rest of
India was on move. Lalu successfully managed to keep up the caste politics and
communal politics (appeasing of Muslims despite their wrong doings) for more
than a decade. Loot, kidnapping and collecting ransoms were synonymous to
everyday life that used to happen under the banner of RJD. Despite being
arrested on fodder scam, he installed an illiterate Rabri Devi to rule the state
with third largest population in India and the voters could not do anything
about it. It was of course partly possible due to significant booth capturing,
proxy voting and the election was barely a nemesis of governance.
Nitish kumar rose to limelight to end all these non-sense
with able support under the banner of NDA and successfully offered governance,
transport, education and was a man with a mission and urge to transform the
backward Bihar. Name any sector, it was in doldrums and there was a need for an
able administrator and Lalu was running a buffalo shed in the chief minister’s
residence. Nitish was voted for the best chief minister award numerous times as
he redefined everything from scratch and the term development was almost absent
in Bihar’s dictionary before him.
His political ambitions however rose on many occasions. This
was partly due to the Bihar like administration by Congress in New Delhi.
People looked forward to an alternative for ending Congress raj of corruption,
negative industrial growth, poor diplomatic and political relations with big
powers across the World. BJP seemingly offered an alternative under the NDA
banner and projected Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. This was
unacceptable to Nitish Kumar, who saw him as a counterpart (of Gujrat) so far
and felt he could equally race for this top post. After a series of tussles, he
snapped ties with NDA after 12 years of alliance, terming it as communal. Additionally,
bent by the crushing defeat of JD-U (the party NItish belonged to) in Lok sabha
election, he resigned and installed Jiten Manjhi (a Mahadalit) as CM with a
wish that he could remove him at will but will still count on the vote banks of
those castes. Manjhi turned out to be more glued to the seat than he was
expected to (by Nitish), as a result Nitish used his veto power to remove him
from the CM post , thus making him a political enemy.
Meanwhile, as the elections in Bihar was drawing closer,
Nitish aligned with rest of the unholy forces who had a tainted background,
including Congress, RJD, SP etc. calling it a grand alliance. They were assembled
together to root out the communal forces (according to Lalu). Amit Shah was
again assigned to spearhead the battle (of Bihar elections) with the cast,
creed equations to repeat the Lok Sabha performances from UP, which was roughly
similar in equations.
Here are few points that went wrong for BJP, costing it five
years in Bihar.
What didn’t work in favor of BJP was a clear lack of leadership (no chief ministerial candidate decided because BJP was not quite sure if it can pull the results in its favor). The weak grounds team always resorted to a combative politics and fell prey of the minor attempts made by Nitish gang. They brought out beef politics, which is never considered as a political agenda by educated/uneducated, rural/urban, rich/poor mass. By denying a particular kind of food, you are basically denying the fundamental rights of someone, irrespective of his/her religious subscriptions. The tiny unwarranted battles made even the common mass (the 62% voters) believe that BJP is not serious about Bihar and its people. Another mistake that BJP suffered big way was to embrace Jiten Manjhi with open arms without evaluating his credibility to really pull in those vote banks, he was promising for.
- There was so simple tactic that BJP could offer against NItish that Nitish just could not be believed due to his political alliance, which was the sole reason for his own entry to Bihar chief ministe ship decades back! How can he dilute the basic philosophy that he stood by, years ago, as history remains unchanged for both Congress and RJD? Projecting the opportunistic angle of NItish could really turn things in BJP’s favor in a big way. But, BJP did nothing of that sort and instead did similar tactics of RJD- the caste equations. That was bound to fail! Because, the voters have learnt to move on beyond this. They were looking for tangible practical solutions to their problems and Nitish in a way has been offering that despite his political associations (which he claims to swing to remain in power and offer forward moving Bihar). So the path taken by Nitish was acceptable to his junta of Bihar.
- After Lok Sabha election, the people of Bihar did not see any translated commitments from BJP that they could further count upon. Modi’s rallies during Lok sabha elections didn’t do any changes in ground for common man in Bihar in the form of industrialization, educational setup (IITs etc.) and so on. The minor credits were carried away by Nitish diligently leaving any credits for BJP!
As a result, Nitish is now acceptable at least for the next five
years, unless Lalu prefers to change guard, which is not unusual of him. But nevertheless,
it’s a job well done, Nitish kumar, a calculated one but still impasse for Modi
and Amit Shah.
Long live democracy, where citizens are the king and Modi is
a Pradhan Sevak and Nitish?? Time will say..
But for sure, he will learn to move up in the ladder and
take head on Modi in some form.
Till next time …
© Subrat Sahoo
