The visible disconnect between BJP’s pronounced “development plank” at the Centre and the variant themes which unwittingly or wittingly dominated its high-pitch poll campaign in Bihar may have led to party’s unexpected reverses in the State Assembly polls. Starting with the selection of candidates to non-projection of a chief ministerial face and the ‘negative’ poll campign, the party managers seemed to have got everything wrong.
The party which spread its massive campaign machinery and human resource around the State to counter the Grand Alliance put together by past political foes — Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad — could not portray itself as the champion of ‘su-sashan’ and ‘su-raj’. And as the poll campaign progressed in the State, the party looked drifting into ‘the negative zones’’
The noises over Dadri incident in Uttar Pradesh and the plank of cow protection went astray, not receiving general approval of voters across the state who looked at Chief Minister NItish Kumar as a man who was focused on development, away from divisive politics. `
While the BJP also sought to stress the line of development and offered a massive central package to the state in the middle of campaigning the jarring campaign tunes, personal attacks, and introduction of “ a foreign hand” - that of Pakistan- did not go well with the electorates.
It is felt that the BJP could have taken the level of poll debate to a higher level by crediting JD (U) leader Kumar with good governance while cautioning voters that he would not be able to deliver any more in the company of the fodder scam-tainted lalu Prasad. But the BJP leaders constantly threw unnecessary barbs at Kumar who by all indications carried high credibility with the voters of Bihar.
The caste equation which was highly tilted towards the Grand Alliance got an additional boost with RSS head Mohan Bhagwat’s inadvertent line over the need to review reservations. The comment was successfully grabbed by RJD and JDU, increasing apprehensions of backwards and EBCs on BJP re-visiting the reservation if the latter was to be voted to power in Bihar. The BJP’s campaign to suggest that RJD-JDU could pass on reservation of extremely backwards to Muslim in Bihar also came to a cropper.
The BJp’s failure to project a Chief ministerial face with whom voters of Bihar could have identified with , did not go down well with the electorates. “ They missed a prospective Bihari CM communicating and connecting with them as a leader,” said a BJP leader.
To the contrary, the grand alliance had “ a tried and tested CM in Nitish Kumar”. The central BJP leaders staring from the large posters and bill boards across Bihar could not have that effective a connect that a “local leader” would have with them . This seemed to have settled ‘ the Bahri and Bihari’ slugfest.
In the hind-sight it could also be said that RJD-JDU had comparatively an almost ‘rebel free’ selection of candidates whereas BJP had to deal with massive rebellion and open accusation of “ sell fo ticket” by party MP and former home secretary R K Singh. Besides, the disgruntled Patna Saheb MP and former actor Shahtrughan Sinha also queered the pitch for the BJP by hurling daily barbs at the party.