By Subodh Kumar Mehta
The victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is based on the popular sentiment of “jungle raj”. I concede that we couldn’t systematically dismantle the false narrative.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Bihar with a politics aimed at holding on to office and not of development. We hope that people realise this in the coming days.
From the way the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was conducted in the state, perilously close to the election and in the heat of the campaign, it appeared, prima facie, that the Election Commission was helping the NDA. And
I do feel that the majority of the deletions in Bihar were from the voters who would have voted for the grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan). This was part of the NDA’s strategy.
Nitish Kumar has been in power for two decades now. When did he decide to give Rs 10,000 to the women of the state? Just 20 days before the elections. This is nothing but a part of Kumar’s appeasement policy.
Take a close look at various parameters of development. As per Niti Aayog, Bihar is lagging in most developmental parameters, whether in terms of governance or infrastructure. Despite this, the people have voted for Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) brand of aggressive nationalism and divisive politics.
Where could we have done better? Our alliance with the Congress party is not new. The fact is that when you go as a team in a match, you have to respect everyone.
As a national party, it was natural for Congress to contest 50-60 seats. We accommodate our allies, and that is what we did. The Rashtriya Janata Dal has a presence in many states. But we refrain from contesting in those states in order to give secular alliances a better chance at victory. On the smaller parties we allied with in this election, I feel that their votes didn’t transfer to the Mahagathbandhan.
The Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) votes of parties like the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), led by Mukesh Sahani, and the Indian Inclusive Party (IIP), appear to be an illustration of this.
This could be due to a lack of coordination between the allies at the ground level. And perhaps, we were so preoccupied with dealing with the Special
Intensive Revision exercise in the courts that we couldn’t ensure a sizeable transfer of votes.
After an election, there are always several ifs and buts. People might say this or that could have been done.
But we should keep in mind that in politics, every day is a new day. We, as a party, will look into the results of the Bihar assembly election and introspect. And we will re-emerge with flying colours.
The writer is national spokesperson, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
