Clear Mandate In The Interest Of ‘The Idea Of India’
By MD Irfan
09 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
This Sunday is memorable for Bihar and those who believe in ‘ The Idea of India’. First hour of this morning gave a moment of joy and happiness to NDA workers and politicians and they celebrated well at Party office when vote count started at 39 centres across state. But second hour and whole day was splendid and never before for Grand Alliance. Grand Alliance got comfortably two third majority in Bihar. Out of 243 seats Grand Alliance won 178 (JD (U) – 71, RJD – 80, Congress – 27), NDA – 58 (BJP – 53, LJP – 2, RLSP – 2, HAM – 1) seats, Left – 3, Independent – 4.
The five phases elections started on 12th of October and ended on 5th November 2015. For the first phase of Bihar Assembly Elections, polling was held for 49 seats, for the second phase 32 seats, for the third phase 50 seats, for the fourth phase 55 seats and for the fifth and last phase 57 seats. Pre poll analysis made Grand Alliance important player for the first and fifth phases and rest was given to NDA. Now we have result, in the first phase out of 49, GA won 44 and NDA 5. In the 2nd phase where there was a good consolidation of Mahadalits and EBC, GA won 23, NDA – 9 out of 32. In the 3rd phase, out of 50 GA won 36, NDA – 12, left opened account here and one seat for Independent. The fourth phase was very important for NDA because it covered upper caste dominated area in which out of 55, 30 seats won by GA, 21 to NDA, 1 to left and 3 seats to Independent. Fifth and last phase where polling was held for 57 seats and commonly known as Mithlanchal and Seemanchal, Grand Alliance got victory on 45 seats, NDA won 11 and one seat to left.
The process of election was started with positive campaign but it didn’t sustain long. Before second phase everything was nicely done in terms of campaigning but later with time it became ugly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known as brand ambassador of ‘development’ started well with the agenda of development but could not take this for long. The Grand Alliance had two faces, one Nitish Kumar who is known as ‘Sushasan babu’ and ‘Vikash purush’. In last 10 years, he has done good works as ‘development’. The second face was Laloo Prasad who started calling this election as forward Vs backward. Even on 29th August in ‘Swabhimaan Rally’ he defined this battle in the language of politics of ‘Mandal – 2’. The NDA gave many chances to Grand Alliances to criticise them from ‘DNA to Pakistan’. Both the leaders from Grand Alliance have their own styles, in this election where Laloo Prasad took issues aggressively but Nitish Kumar was dealing issues with calmness. The issue of ‘Reservation’ and Mohan Bhagwat’s statement about non political committee for review of reservation policy was fruitful for Grand Alliance. Reservation has always been sensitive issue and Laloo Prasad knew very well how to deal with this particular issue. ‘Dadri lynching’, killing of two Dalit children in Haryana and other incidents before and during elections and silence of Prime Minister on these incidents confused people. People were hesitant to give mandate to a party ruling at centre and under this rule the communal forces and intolerance in the country in the last few months increases.
The NDA changed stand phase by phase. It was like hit and trial method. The period of elections was too long and it is difficult for any party to stand with one issue. Even people don’t want to listen same words time and again. The BJP was expecting something bigger from alliance partners but it didn’t work. Paswan and Manjhi could not consolidate votes of Mahadalit as NDA was expecting. The RJD came with caste card and opponents were always ready to give new stuff to the party to criticise them. The JDU had clear cut agenda of development and Nitish Kumar was trying to cash it. Being a National party the Congress came as a third partner.
Under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, Grand Alliance scripted historic win in Bihar. It’s clear mandate in interest of Bihar. Though Grand Alliance has clear two third majority but there are many challenges before Nitish Kumar. The first and foremost challenge is balancing and togetherness in alliance. Janata Parivar was always victim of that historically. The second challenge from inside itself. The working style of Laloo and Nitish are different. There are chances of clash and particularly when RJD has more share in terms of seats. Distribution of profiles in the cabinet are also challenging. The Congress has good number of seats and there would be demand of appropriate share in the government.
MD Irfan, PhD scholar, Department of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi Email: [email protected]