Election fever takes over corona scare in Bihar

Bihar Assembly Election: A litmus test for many mass leaders

JUNE 17 ( WTN) - The elections in Bihar are round the corner, anything between 120-150 days to be precise, if late October is assumed to be the time, and the BJP has already sounded the poll begul. The tussle has to be between RJD-backed UPA and the JDU-baked NDA, though the JDU led by Nitish Kumar certainly holds a stronger position. The RJD, despite a broad base, especially among the lower caste hierarchies, is short of a leader of that stature who could turn those numbers into votes.

With Lalu Yadav, the most prominent face of the party lodged in jail, it now falls upon the younger leaders to prove their mettle. No one in the party, however, has the same kind of heft and influence on the people as the patriarch Lalu Prasad. This is a downer which the party has to fight its way through.

The election will show who happens to be the right heir of Lalu Prasad. Though, the sympathy wave in party loyalists can work in its favour, especially for Tejashwi Yadav, the frontline torchbearer of the Yadav clan, and most likely the Opposition’s chief ministerial face. But when he is pitted against Nitish Kumar, the odds are clearly against Tejashwi.

Not only that many in the Congress and its allies are unwilling to give much space to Tejashwi, it also must be reckoned that Nitish is a seasoned politician and several times the CM of the state, which enhances his reach and credibility manifolds. He has done good work over the last few years and the overall economic and political situation in Bihar is much better today than what it used to be.

The only thing that can go against Nitish is his poor handling of the migrant crisis in April-May. He has still not come out clear on why he was opposing the entry of migrants to the state or why he refused to pay up for the special trains carrying the migrants. Over three million migrants suffered due to the Bihar government’s indecisive stance and that anger is still there in the people.

Nitish Kumar is promising irrigation and uninterrupted power supply to villages, which may help in offsetting some of the anger because over 80 per cent of Bihar is still dependent on agriculture and better irrigation and power facilities is an urgent essentiality.

The BJP’s strategy is impeccable and it is reaching each and every constituency to garner more and more people and their goodwill in its fold and the Opposition is scrambling for ideas to make an equal impact on the people by playing up the shortcomings of the Nitish Kumar government. Bihar assembly has 243 seats and the political dynamics of the second largest state of the country has got to have an impact on national politics too. The people of Bihar have to choose wisely.