If the Bihar Assembly elections are held on schedule in October-November, it will be the first test of a government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — the abiding image of which has become the exhausted migrant workers, often hungry, trudging back homewards, endless kilometre after kilometre, on foot.
And it is Bihar more than any other State, which sends one of the highest numbers of skilled and unskilled labourers to the rest of the country, where the pain of this crisis resonates the most.
Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar finds himself isolated, facing not only barbs from the Opposition parties including the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) but also having to contend with attacks from his allies the BJP and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Across the political spectrum, the effort is to put the burden of misadministration on the shoulders of Mr. Kumar. For the allies the aim is to try to distance their parties from the chief minister and his administration so as to shield themselves from any adverse electoral fallout that the reverse migration will likely cause.
While there were stray BJP voices criticising Mr. Kumar even earlier, the government’s reluctance to bring back students stranded in Kota in Rajasthan became a flashpoint that saw even the Bihar BJP Chief Sanjay Jaiswal openly questioning the JD (U) leader. Mr. Jaiswal contended that if the BJP government in U.P. could send buses to bring back the State’s students from Kota, then the Bihar government too could have done the same. The LJP has been going all guns blazing at the chief minister, sounding far more trenchant in its criticism than even the State’s opposition parties. “There has been delay and mishandling,” LJP President Chirag Paswan told The Hindu. “I feel that Nitish ji failed to build the trust of the migrant workers like U.P. CM Yogi Adityanath did,” he asserted.
Being the face of the government and the ruling alliance, the Opposition’s criticism is also directed at him. “Nitish Kumar has miserably failed and they have been totally exposed in their approach and attitude towards the most vulnerable sections of society,” AICC secretary Chandan Yadav said. “Majority of these workers belong to OBC or SC. They are economically and socially deprived. He shrugged off responsibility towards the sons and daughters of Bihar,” he added.
Mr. Yadav said that the Bihar government’s initial reaction was to stall every attempt of the workers to return to their homes. But at the same time, he said, the BJP couldn’t shrug off its responsibility. “BJP and JD (U), who together have ruled the State for 13 years, share the collective responsibility for the deplorable medical facilities in the State,” he added.
Senior JD (U) colleagues of Mr. Kumar opine that the BJP’s criticism is only a tactic to keep Mr. Kumar on tenterhooks to ensure that he doesn’t emerge as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi or overwhelm the BJP in the State. “As far as LJP is concerned it’s merely a pressure tactic to negotiate for a better seat sharing arrangement,” said a JD (U) leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They are aiming to get close to 40 seats, which the JD (U) is not willing to part with,” the leader added.
“People are unhappy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too for the sudden announcement of lockdown, which derailed the economy and brought about unmeasurable misery on lakhs of people,” another senior JD (U) leader argued. “Yet, there is no vikalp (option) to Modi. Similarly, there is no alternative to Nitish in Bihar,” the leader asserted. If Lalu Prasad Yadav was out of jail and was in active politics, he contended, the situation would have been different. “Congress is a non-starter and Tejashwi Yadav (who is currently leading the RJD) is ineffective,” he averred.
