While most of the Indians, along with the rest of the world were tuned in to the rollercoaster that the American elections were, one of the most populous states in our country was going to polls in an election whose importance was highlighted by the amount of interest it generated throughout the country.
The incumbent government of Nitish Kumar led JDU, in alliance with BJP was up against the Mahagathbandhan – which consists of RJD, Congress and the Left, led by the youngster Tejashwi Yadav. This is the first election to be held in the country since the onset of coronavirus, and just like almost every other aspect of life, the uncertainty had permeated to the results of the election as well.
The opinion polls had indicated a landslide victory for the NDA, but the prediction seemed awfully off the mark, especially considering the strong undercurrent of anti-incumbency amongst the voters. For all the work Nitish Kumar had done in his first two terms, it is no secret that he has failed his state in the last few years. His response to the coronavirus induced migrant crisis didn’t help his case as he refused to send buses to fetch the migrant workers home, resulting in them having to make a journey of thousands of kilometres on foot. Such mismanagement had resulted in creating a strong resentment amongst people towards the existing government, an opportunity that the opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav didn’t miss.
Often under the shadow of his father’s misgovernance and the tag of “Jungle Raj” that is associated with RJD’s reign, he has done well to not only brush off those remarks, but spark a sense of optimism in the state’s youth. He has also steered clear of the caste-religion issue that has dominated the politics of north India in recent times to focus on the issues with which the voters of Bihar relate to.
As so often has been the case in the past few elections, the top leadership of BJP tried to appeal to the nationalist and populist emotions of the voters by mentioning Pulwama, the abrogation of article 370 and Ram Mandir, but it was evident that such tactics will bear no fruition in this election. Moreover, how rattled the NDA was with Tejashwi’s campaign could be seen in their response to the RJD’s manifesto. While Tejashwi was initially mocked and his competence questioned for his promise of creating 10 lakh jobs, the reaction of the voters made NDA change their strategy to not only double down to create 19 lakh jobs, but also make a very unethical promise of providing free coronavirus vaccines if voted to power. While it is not uncommon for parties to make promises that are not only unethical but highly unlikely of happening, this indicated how high the stakes were, and that no party was ready to give in.
For a state which is highly dependent on agriculture, RJD promised to scrap the controversial new Farm Law enacted by the central government, increase the farmers’ income and waive their loans. It also stressed on the importance of building industry in Bihar, and strengthening the education system.
While the promises made by both the coalitions were similar on paper, their campaigns brought different results as was evident by the exit polls, which, in stark contrast to the opinion polls, indicated a Mahagathbandhan victory. The exit polls suggested that the people of Bihar were tired of the NDA alliance that had been in power for over 15 years and were itching for a change and a leader who would make good of his promises.
However, the Bihar elections gave a tough competition to the American election in terms of twists and turns, with NDA defying the exit polls to edge ahead with 125 seats out of 243, enough to get a majority and form the government. While the political experts will now gather to deliberate upon the results and the factors that could have played a role in NDA victory – caste and community equations, vote bank politics, anti-NDA votes getting split due to multi cornered contests, one unmistakable conclusion that can be drawn from this election is that the pollsters got it all wrong once again as neither did the NDA win with a landslide, as was indicated in the opinion polls, nor did the Mahagathbandhan win, as was said in the exit polls.
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