Bihar: BJP piggybacks on Nitish Kumar's votebank; 'JD(U) chief can play pivotal role in Centre'
JD(U) emerged as the single largest party with 14 out of the 16 seats it contested, while its ally BJP could win only 12 seats. Bihar's EBC voters stood by Nitish Kumar
By : Ashok Mishra
Update: 2024-06-04 12:16 GMT
The JD(U)-BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is winning big as compared to the Opposition INDIA bloc in the keenly-fought Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.
The NDA tally, however, was reduced by eight seats compared to its 2019 tally of 39 seats out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Piggy-backing on Janata Dal (U) chief Nitish Kumar’s votebank, the BJP seems to have maintained a reasonable tally of 12 seats against its 17 seats in 2019.
The JD(U), however, emerged as the single largest party with 14 out of the 16 seats it contested. The BJP, which contested 17 Lok Sabha seats, could win only 12 seats.
In the changing political scenario, Nitish with 14 MPs can play a significant role in the politics at the Centre. His party leaders and supporters still consider him as the most suitable candidate for the post of the Prime Minister.
"The NDA should consider him as an eligible candidate for the post of the Prime Minister," said former minister and senior JD(U) leader Bikram Kunwar.
RJD and LJP (Ram Vilas)
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) opened its account in Bihar after a decade, while the Left parties including the CPI-ML have won after a lapse of over three decades. The RJD, however, had a major setback with the defeat of Dr Rohini Acharya, who had donated a kidney to her father Lalu Prasad, at the hands of Rajiv Pratap Rudy from the Saran Lok Sabha seat.
The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Chirag Paswan, an NDA ally, won all the five seats it contested.
What worked for Nitish?
The 2024 poll outcome in Bihar has gone against predictions that the social justice plank promoted by Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi can stall the Modi juggernaut in Bihar.
But BJP’s timely alliance with Nitish Kumar just before the elections seems to worked for them.
The outcome also once again showed that the votes of the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) constituting 36 per cent of the total vote bank in Bihar remained loyal to Nitish Kumar.
The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also a decisive factor behind NDA’s substantial gain in Bihar. The free foodgrain scheme of the Modi government seems to have worked among the EBCs and Scheduled Castes in favour of the NDA allies.
BJP strategy in Bihar
The BJP, however, was able to contain its slide in Bihar despite a spirited Opposition setting aside their previous acrimonious differences.
The top BJP leadership had allied with Nitish Kumar because of his different image that he did not promote his family members in politics like Lalu Prasad.
“Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has been averse to pariwarvaad (family) in politics. His clean image definitely worked in NDA favour,” state BJP chief and deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary told The Federal.
Faced with the Mandal onslaught by Tejashwi, the BJP made continuous appeals to people to rise above caste considerations and behave as a homogenous religious group. This strategy seems to have paid dividends.
“We had worked in all 40 constituencies and reached out to booths to galvanise the voters for our party as well as the allies,” Choudhary said.
The BJP leader also credited the victory to Modi government's performance in 10 years, to the abrogation of Article 370, promise to implement Uniform Civil Code (UCC) etc.
RJD fails to impress voters
Though a close contest was witnessed in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats, the core issues raised by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav such as unemployment, threat to Constitution, inflation, communalism and hatred against a section of minorities did not influence the voting preferences of the people much.
It seems the RJD has not yet inculcated faith among the upper castes, who are still antagonistic towards Lalu Prasad Yadav. Though, Tejashwi had switched over to the A-to-Z formula meaning support of all castes from Lalu's M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination, the non-Yadav backward castes, a section of Dalits and EBCs seem to still nurture grudges against the RJD.
Tejashwi’s populist pitches for jobs to youth had caught the fancy of the younger generation but it was subdued under the caste combination formed after BJP's alliance with Nitish Kumar and Jitan Ram Manjhi in favour of the NDA.
The ‘OBC-SC reservation in danger’ narrative given by the RJD during the poll campaigns failed to yield the desired results.
Rejection of caste-based politics
The NDA victory is also rejection of the caste-based politics pursued by the RJD and it seems that Nitish Kumar's 'development with justice' agenda had an overarching impact on regressive caste politics.
The JD(U) has once again emerged as the main ally of the NDA with 14 seats indicating strong support for Nitish Kumar, who had initiated the formation of the INDIA bloc but shifted allegiance to the NDA just before the polls.
Nitish switched camps seemingly over the reluctance of the Congress and other parties to appoint him as the convener of the INDIA bloc.
The BJP too had not treated Nitish on par, reducing his quota of seats to 16 from 17 in 2019. But the BJP had lost two seats out of the 17 seats it contested, while the JD(U) lost only one seat thereby becoming the single largest party from Bihar.
Revival of Left
The Bihar verdict has revived the Left parties including the CPI-ML, CPI and CPM, which had contested from five constituencies as part of the INDIA bloc.
The CPI-ML has defeated incumbent Union minister Raj Kumar Singh from Arrah and former minister Upendra Kushwaha from Karakat seat. While the CPI had given a tough fight to incumbent Union minister Giriraj Singh, the CPM valiantly challenged the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Khagaria.
EBC votebank – the Jin
The verdict reflects that Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), which constitute little over 36 per cent of the total electorate, solidly stood behind NDA, especially Nitish Kumar. It is the EBC vote-bank, which Lalu Prasad used to describe as ‘Jinn’ for his successive poll victories in Bihar assembly polls.
It appears the issues like prohibition, women empowerment, infrastructure development including network of roads and bridges and uninterrupted supply of power ensured by the Nitish Kumar government had a salutary impact on the voters.
Rashtriya Lok Morcha led by Upendra Kushwaha and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) faced a drubbing in this election and this does not augur well for the parties. Both of them have failed to open their account.
The poll results also indicate the possible poll scenario in 2025 when Bihar will be headed for a crucial state assembly elections.