By Nikhil Anand
Bihar Assembly election is witnessing one of the fierce battles of words in recent time during any election in India. The prestige issue of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is at stake while it is going to be the toughest election for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah since taking over charge at the Centre. Both the alliances don’t want to leave any stone unturned to give the opposite collision any chance to take the lead and this the reason the whole campaign is taking place on a negative note to show each other in bad light.
Lalu Prasad is trying to reincarnate himself in ideological mould to revive his political fortune on Social Justice plank, for which he is desperately echoing Mandal sentiment again. The same strategy is being followed by Nitish Kumar also in addition to Bihar pride, special status and package fraud etc. As the campaign progressed, Lalu and Nitish were successful in presenting their political collaboration as ‘Mandal Raj’ to counter the allegation of ‘Jungle Raj’ by BJP. Nitish Kumar has come out with the claims of his government achievements in the last 10 years as well as presented a seven-point charter of vision to take Bihar ahead through advertisements, courtesy his team led by Prashant Kishore. The key problem with RJD and JDU is that their leaders have shed egos, the unity of their cadre and supporters in the electoral battlefield is in question. Lalu and Nitish have already launched the campaign throughout the state and leading from the front, they have planned more than 400 rallies which show their high individual stake in this election.
On the other side, BJP went through several surveys and secret reports to decide their candidates but could not avoid the discontent within the party circle with allegations of ticket sell off to mafia- criminals putting its rank & file in a dock like situation. The faction ridden state BJP is facing a big trust deficit as they don’t have any leader who has got a pan Bihar rapport to counter the magical charm of Lalu-Nitish. BJP president Amit Shah has personally come in to Patna for a week to look after the campaign strategy, over shadow the factionalism and ego clash of party leaders as well as calm down the defectors. BJP has now decided around 500 rallies of NDA leaders including more than a dozen rallies by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give an aggressive punch to the campaign. It is obvious that Narendra Modi is the only hope to rescue BJP's political fortune and can alone pull ahead in campaign and ensure victory.
The Election Commission has announced to complete the electoral process in five phases which will be completed on November 8, 2015 when the counting is scheduled. As we politically analyse the ongoing campaign process, it seems one phase of election was over when the PM took Bihar into his stride with five rallies in which he raised DNA issue, announced Rs 1.25 crore package and gave a new definition to RJD (Rojana Jungle Raj Ka Darr) and JDU (Janata Ka Daman aur Utpidan). But the Mahagathbandhan rally at Gandhi Maidan was enough to match the might of BJP. Nitish Kumar tried to attach the DNA issue with Bihar pride and refuted the claim of PM’s Bihar package by calling it repackaging of old wine in a new bottle. This phase ended with giving BJP an edge with slight margin courtesy PM Modi’s much hyped rallies.
The second phase of Bihar electoral politics is also over with both the party declaring their war horses for the battle and the strategic campaign started by leaders attacking below the belt. The edge which BJP got was badly eroded as their ticket distribution created controversy within the circle. The similar allegation of selling the tickets was raised in RJD, JDU as well as NDA allies, LJP, RLSP & HAM. This shows the degrading political culture afflicting all the parties and their leaders. JDU and RJD raised the save reservation echo and caste pride sentiment in an effort to consolidate the subaltern OBC and Dalit communities which brought BJP on back foot to an extent. In this phase both the political fronts seem to be on a parallel and level match ground of contest.
Now Bihar election has moved into the third phase with series of rallies by PM Narendra Modi starting from Banka. Team Modi knows that their victory in Bihar election is much needed not only for a majority in Rajya Sabha but to establish an unquestionable hold over BJP organisation. When PM hits the ground zero, a political war of words is expected. Lalu and Nitish are waiting cautiously not to allow the PM get any scope to gain mileage with his acclaimed style of speech and magical word which strikes an excellent rapport with masses.
Political parties are echoing sentiments, pumping money and other available resources among their cadres, supporters and sympathisers to influence the voting pattern. Every party is applying tactics by promoting leaders and sentiments on the basis of caste, religion, region and language to emotionally surcharge people to vote. But gauging the public mood is a big challenge as a vast section of common people belonging to deprived communities are keenly watching every move of political parties and their masters. The Upper Caste, Muslims and OBC communities are actively participating in the ongoing electoral process but majority of Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and Dalit (SC) community are still a mute spectator. They altogether consist about 40 percent of total voters and these silent voters are going to decide the fate of future government in Bihar. Interestingly, all ideological claims of political parties lose its worth as the agenda for development of Bihar has taken the backseat while the future of Bihar is hanging between claims, speculation, propaganda and silence far away from the reality at ground zero.
(Author Nikhil Anand is Loyola School, Patna & IIMC, Delhi alumnus. He is a Journalist since 1999 who writes on social- political issues.)
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