'Bihari Asmita' biggest issue in Bihar election

Aishwarya Kapoor, Political Editor, Republic Media Network

The three poles on which Bihar's politics has revolved for the last thirty years now clearly see a change as the party of former chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav has become a full-fledged family kirana store. After the rise of Lalu, Nitish and Paswan's trinity in Bihar politics, the Congress Party continued to lag behind in the power equations in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party was preparing its land in such a way that its base could not be reduced to the casteist ambit. Although the BJP made this success in alliance with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a hero of this trinity, but with its nationalist image, it succeeded in creating a voter class in Bihar which is purely outside the scope of socialist/communist thinking and where Indianess was considered ideal.

In the context of Bihar, its regional politics has been revolving around the socialist ideology in such a way that till 1962, the Communist Party of India was the main opposition party in the assembly, whereas, since 1967, the United Socialist Party of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia which included Ram Vilas Paswan. Paswan is a product of this party while Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav have come out of Jai Prakash Narayan's movement started in 1974. Despite being ideologically close, there was a vast difference in the politics of these three, out of which, due to the personal aspirations of Lalu Prasad, the politics of this state saw new colors.

Particularly after the Mandal Commission came into force in 1989, Bihar's politics changed completely and got trapped in the backward and forward equation so much that Lalu Prasad, on the back of his Ahir caste, made minority appeasement and caste politics his basic mantra.

In 2005, the BJP formed an alliance with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) party and smashed casteist circles through a demand for good governance in Bihar, which under the last 15 years of Lalu Prasad and his family, had turned into a fiefdom. During this time, there was also the much talked about fodder scam for which Lalu is serving a sentence nowadays. In fact, Lalu transformed the socialist legacy left by Karpoori Thakur in Bihar into a family rule in such a way that the state became synonymous with misrule, and its economy continued to fall into disrepair.

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Industries in the state were shrinking and new capital investment almost stopped. Left in this pitiful condition, Nitish Kumar started efforts to improve it by joining with BJP in 2005. In the last 15 years, the improvement in Bihar's gross growth rate can be attributed to the vision of a hardworking Bihari citizen and administration, but it is not enough as Bihar can stand with the frontline states of the country. The Nitish-BJP alliance will face anti-incumbency factor in the assembly elections to be held in October-November because it is natural to rage against the ruling coalition for 15 consecutive years, but the Modi government at the Centre took many important steps to reduce this blow by speeding up the pace of development in Bihar.

The Centre has given a special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the state so that incomplete development works can be completed and industries can be expanded in Bihar. The fact is that even today, the people of Bihar continue to be the backbone of the economy of a leading state like Punjab and handle the business from agriculture to small and medium scale industries. It is clear from this that how active and diligent Bihari citizens are. But politically, Bihari voters are also considered the most aware. For this reason, it is also called 'Political Laboratory'. The biggest feature of this state, which determines the lines of politics in North India, is that it signifies 'change' by changing politics according to the changing times.

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Its voters, who vote in different ways in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, recognize their regional interests in such a way that even big leaders forget the math. But Bihari Asmita may also be an issue among the voters. If this happens, it will be the first time in which the importance of Bihari identity will be given because there is a question about Bihar that even a small business doing business in a town has the potential to unleash the screws of national politics. But the way the common man of Bihar has been hurt by the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, it is not impossible to make an impact. The national campaign for justice for Sushant forced the common Bihari citizen to wonder whether in the world of so-called raucous elites a son of the state was only abused because he emerged from a small town amidst the glitz of Mumbai.

An ordinary Bihari citizen may suffer. Of course, this is an emotional issue that has nothing to do with the misery and pain of migrant laborers of Bihar during the Corona period. It is obvious that the opposition will raise issues related to the youth and migrant labourers and try to corner the Nitish government. But the fact is Biharis know hardship was faced due to corona and the lowdown by people in other states too.

Of course, arrangements were also made by the Nitish government in a way that reduced these sufferings, but the problem has to be faced. Nitish Kumar may find support from the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in these elections as PM Modi's image in the villages of Bihar is that of an ordinary man selling tea, who has worked hard to reach the post of PM. It will also be seen how the people of Bihar take the agricultural bills as this is a state where there is no mandi committee law and due to this, a large increase in the income of farmers (especially in the area of ​​cash crops) was recorded under Nitish rule. It can be said that in Bihar, this time the issue of 'honor of Bihari' can also be used in electoral chess.