Vindication for Nitish Kumar; lessons for BJP
The Janata Dal (United)-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress grand alliance's emphatic victory in the Bihar Assembly election has three key messages. The first is that the people of Bihar have reposed trust in Mr Nitish Kumar's leadership and endorsed his governance model. The second is that they have accepted the unusual partnership between Mr Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad. And the third is that the voters of the State have comprehensively rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance on issues not necessarily related to inclusive development. It is a dramatic comeback (‘What a comeback!’ One BJP leader is reported to have exclaimed) for both Mr Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad, whose parties had to bite the dust barely 18 months ago in the lok Sabha election, following which political obituaries had begun to be penned of these leaders. The result demonstrates that no grassroots leader can ever be written off. Mr Nitish Kumar was able to sell his governance and development model to the people, despite the fact that the JD(U) Government had faltered after it broke away with the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 lok Sabha election. His personal image had never come into question, even by his opponents, and, therefore, there had been no anti-incumbency against him. The only negative that even his supporters had feared was his alliance with lalu Prasad, who holds a notorious record in poor governance and even poorer law and order situation. It is not as if the voters this time around believed that the RJD supremo had reformed. But they have endorsed the alliance simply because they trust Mr Nitish Kumar to hold the upper hand in the State's administration without allowing either lalu Prasad or his party to sabotage its functioning. It remains to be seen whether this belief will hold true. But what is obvious is that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's efforts to discredit Mr Nitish Kumar on this count, didn't work.
The result should put the BJP into deep introspection. It was supposed to lead its alliance partners in the surge for victory. Instead, by itself falling behind, it led the collapse. The party must take stock of the electoral strategies it employed during the election. While there is no doubt that it is led by a Prime Minister who is considered a strong votary of inclusive development — and his many actions since taking charge in May 2014 have demonstrated that — the party got entangled in issues that had nothing to do with development. Even if those had been injected into the campaign by rival parties, the BJP ought to have contemptuously brushed them aside. Instead, the party's leaders converted the issues into core matters and allowed their attention to shift from development. Worse, some of the party's motormouths ended up giving extremely objectionable statements, which annoyed the voters — more so because no action was taken against these people. This is not something that voters, especially the aspirational class and the youth, wanted to hear. Moreover, those contentious remarks had nothing to do with the progress of the State. Having said that, it is silly of the BJP's rivals to declare that the Bihar setback presages the demise of the Modi regime at the Centre. The party will eventually emerge from the shock and concentrate on other battles ahead.