Is Nitish Kumar losing political relevance in Bihar?

Ajay Kumar

Patna, Dec 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) In Bihar, there are three political forces -- RJD, BJP and JD(U) -- and whenever two have come together, they have formed the government in the state. It was proven in 2010, 2015 and 2020.

Now, such a situation is changing in Bihar as Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD are jointly running the government in Bihar, but they are failing to convince the voters. Is the myth of the two-party-making-government breaking now? Are Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav losing relevance in Bihar -- these are the big questions in Bihar these days.

After the formation of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar in August this year, three by-elections took place and the BJP, which is the lone opposition party in the state, has managed to win two seats of Gopalganj and Kurhani. Even the Mokama seat was not won due to RJD or Tejashwi Yadav. It was the impact of Bahubali leader Anant Singh, who helped his wife Neelam Devi to win the bypoll.

Prashant Kishor, who is currently in East Champaran for his Jan Suraj Padyatra, said: "You are talking about uncle (Nitish Kumar) and nephew Tejashwi Yadav but they are only cheating the people of Bihar. What is the capacity of the uncle-nephew government in Bihar, they lost two out of three bypolls. The seat of Mokama was won due to Bahubali leader Anant Singh. They are unable to win bypolls and teach me."

"Tejashwi Yadav had promised to give 10 lakh jobs from the first signature when he came to power. Is the ink of his pen dried up or the pen is broken? Why is the cabinet meeting not taking place on jobs?" Kishor asks.

"Tejashwi Yadav is nothing without Lalu Prasad Yadav. What is the knowledge and understanding Tejashwi has? He became MLA for the first time in 2015. Who knows him before? I helped Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav in 2015 and then Mahagathbandhan came in power," Kishor said.

The result of the Kurhani bypoll has given a clear message that the anti incumbency factor is creeping against Nitish Kumar and it is rising. He is the longest serving chief minister of Bihar, still the development works are not taking place as it was expected.

"The voting patterns in Bihar are changing now. The Mahagahtbandhan government promised 20 lakh jobs and youths of Bihar are expecting jobs from Nitish and Tejashwi. Unfortunately, they are not giving jobs in accordance with the promises they have made in the past. Caste factor is relevant in Bihar, but if the political parties would only depend on it and make a plan accordingly to win the election, it is the biggest mistake in the current situation. You cannot fool the people, you have to deliver. I personally believe that the anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar is affecting Tejashwi Yadav," said Rajan Sharma, a retired government employee of the education department.

"Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav were claiming in the past that they are giving joining letters in various departments is also a big fraud. The people are not fools, they knew the game of joining letters. The joining letters they are giving to the people are old employees and the jobs were given during the tenure of the NDA government," said another person Kamal Kant Sahani, a resident of Boring road Patna.

"The Mahagathbandhan government is failing on several issues like liquor ban, inflation, crime, corruption, issues of farmers, Industries, food processing units and others. When Tejashwi Yadav was the leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly, he used to raise the issue of unemployment, lack of industries and food processing units. We have not seen any industry or food processing unit installed in the last three months. The last major industrial development was the Pepsi bottling plant installed in Begusarai. We have not seen a fresh food processing unit, sugar mill, rice mill or other industrial development take place in Bihar," Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Danapur said.

"The political parties of Bihar are only thinking about how their own goals would be achieved through permutation and combination of caste and community factor and through vote 'Katwas'. This is actually a negative politics the RJD, JD(U) or the BJP are doing. No one thinks about the actual development of Bihar. They just use blame game politics to pass the poll examinations. The Mahagathbandhan leaders blame the BJP for running communal agendas to polarise the voters and while the saffron leaders blame them for the return of Jungle Raj, corruption, scams, etc. None of the political parties have public oriented blueprints to improve their lives," said Sanjay Kumar Pandey, a resident of RK Puram Patna.

"Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav campaigned jointly in Kurhani but the result did not come according to their expectation. The poor people of Bihar are not pleased with the ill policies of Nitish Kumar. Liquor ban has penalised the poor people more than the middle class and high-earning people of Bihar. In every liquor tragedy, 95 per cent of the people are poor who consume the country-made liquor. Various leaders like Jitan Ram Manjhi pointed out that over four lakh people have been serving jail term and majority of them are below poverty line people, Dalit people who are against Nitish Kumar," Pandey said.

"We have learnt from childhood that the crime or criminals have no caste and religion. Similarly, a person served jail term in liquor violation, how could their families give votes on the basis of caste and communities. This is a simple logic and explanation Nitish Kumar has to understand for his survival in the politics of Bihar," Pandey said.

Source: IANS