PATNA: The victory of RJD candidate Amar Paswan in the Bochaha assembly byelection by over 36,000 votes against BJP nominee Baby Kumari on Saturday has shattered various myths about the saffron party, pointing to the opening of a new scenario regarding the RJD itself. Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) nominee Geeta Kumari finished third.
Even if the votes secured by Baby (45,909) and Geeta (29,299) are added up, the victory margin of Amar (81,562) is 7,374 votes.
Even though VIP chief Mukesh Sahani might have distributed sweets out of sheer kill-joy claiming that his party acted as ‘votekatwa’ that ate into the BJP votes leading to its defeat, the ground reports from Bochaha on Saturday pointed out that the votes polled by Geeta was the result of the clout of nine-time MLA and her father Ramai Ram, as well as the antics he played during campaigning, like sitting on dharna in a village for hours together until the villagers promised on oath to vote for his daughter!
While the people of the Bhumihar (upper) caste are present in a significant number in the constituency, they refused to remain a “captive vote” of the BJP whose leaders have always maintained: “Where will the upper caste people go? To the RJD? No way. That is, if not BJP and the NDA partners, then what?”
The reservation of Bhumihars about the BJP resulted mainly from two factors: Infighting among its caste leaders and the denial of ticket to sitting MLC Sachchidanand Rai from Saran urban local body constituency, from where he won as an independent candidate. Even as the BJP had put each of the 35 panchayats in the Bochaha constituency under a senior functionary to mobilise votes, besides the campaign tours of the central and state ministers, it failed to change their stance.
It also shattered the myth that the BJP’s nominee, whatever his or her profile, will win, since it commands the influence and mass appeal of PM Narendra Modi. The Bochaha bypoll happened around a month after the BJP’s victory in four of the five states on March 10, but it failed to influence the voters there.
Curiously, aping UP CM Yogi Adtiyanath, who heads the BJP’s first “bulldozer government,” now being adopted in Madhya Pradesh, a BJP minister from Muzaffarpur district had also begun to speak in terms of adopting the “bulldozer model” to remove encroachments from the government land. This, too, did not cast any magical charm on the voters in Bochaha, including Bhumihars, and most of them reportedly voted for the RJD.
Coming two years before the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Bochaha bypoll has begun showing signs of changing social equations in the state in favour of RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who calls his party as the “A to Z Party,” implying a party that will give representation to all sections. From the Muslim-Yadav (M-Y) combine, it is hurtling towards being the “A to Z Party”.
