By News18
鈥淣aukri, Rozgar, Kushal Bihar 鈥 Fir ek baar NDA sarkar鈥 鈥 Posters with these slogans came up outside the JDU office in Patna on Tuesday. Ordinarily, it would seem like an NDA poll pitch with the top two faces of the two alliance partners adorning the walls. But political history watchers were smiling.
Exactly 15 years ago, similar pictures of then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sprung up across Patna. It was on the eve of BJP National executive and soon after Gujarat had donated Rs 5 crore to Bihar for flood relief. The giant hoardings and the newspaper ads showing Modi and Nitish hand in hand, smiling, reportedly riled the Bihar CM so much that the alliance was ruptured. Nitish Kumar, as per his aides, saw the ads as an attempt to show Bihar and his governance in poor light.
Much water has flown down the Ganga since then. Nitish has come back to the NDA fold and promised PM Modi from electoral rally stage never to sever ties again. The latest posters at JDU office is further acknowledgement that if BJP needs Nitish as the face of susashan (good governance) to keep away 鈥渏ungle raj鈥, Nitish needs Modi more to keep an aggressive RJD away.
Opposition is taking pot-shots at JDU, making references to Nitish Kumar鈥檚 health. Their charge 鈥 BJP will finish JDU as the latter flounders to find a successor for Nitish. The poster is one more weapon in their 鈥楯DU will be over鈥 arsenal.
The RJD-led opposition is in the campaign mode in poll-bound Bihar. Tejashwi Yadav, the former Deputy CM, believes this election is his. 鈥淏anenge, kyun nahi banenge, (I will become CM, why not)鈥 is his reply when media interviewers ask the mandatory 鈥淎re we speaking to the next CM鈥 question.
He is on a yatra, press conference, interview giving spree. Taking the jungle raj charge head on, the youngest son of Lalu Prasad asks, 鈥淚 was Deputy Chief Minister for 18 months 鈥 did people stop stepping out of their homes?鈥
He, instead, keeps the focus on anti-incumbency.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been in opposition for the last 20 years, and they鈥檙e still crying about us. Why don鈥檛 they take accountability for their governance? What鈥檚 their plan for trade in Bihar? How will they make small businesses viable? They never talk about that. All they say is that 鈥榡ungle raj鈥 will return,鈥 Tejashwi said.
Electoral roll SIR The X Factor
The Election Commission鈥檚 Special Intensive Revision, however, could prove to be the X-factor in the run up to the polls. RJD feels that the exercise is only targeting localities which are known to be their stronghold. But cutting across political divide, there is some concern about the impact of Non Resident Bihari voters getting weeded out.
The EC estimates 10 per cent of those in Bihar voter list, do not live in the state. CEC Gyanesh Kumar says law does not make any special provision for such cases. He says only ordinary residents can vote. If indeed SIR disallows the migrant Bihari from voting, the impact may not be on the vote bank of any one party.