Mainstream WeeklyThe Bihar Assembly Elections raised a plethora of debate throughout the country even before the proclamation of election was announced by the Election Commission of India. An attempt is made here to discuss the various dimensions of the polls. No specific effort is made at number crunching like the number of seats contested by the Parties/ coalitions, the percentage of votes they polled, caste-wise breakup etc. I must add that my analysis is not based on any field visit, as I am sitting far away in Bengaluru. The impressions presented are born out of my own understanding of Bihar elections based on the secondary source data available in the media, the print, electronic and social media.
With the above preface and caveat, let me dive into an analysis of the election processes.
1. It must be mentioned at the very outset that the decision of the ECI to announce the election dates was preceded by conducting the SIR a few weeks before the polls. The SIR decision was defended by the Commission as a routine exercise and also by the ruling NDA regime to no end, despite saying that the ECI is an independent constitutional body etc,.The Opposition and sections of the media and analysts saw the SIR exercise as an effort to disenfranchise certain categories of voters to help the ruling dispensation. The matter reached the Supreme Court, which, while laying down some ground rules or the SIR activity did not stop the process.
2. The BJP took the election, as it always does, very seriously supported by its its organisational machinery, resources ( financial in particular) with PM Modi as its chief campaigner. The Party also accorded equal status to its alliance partner JD(U) led by CM Nitish Kumar. So much so, the BJP and the JDU agreed to contest equal number of seats (101 each) also accommodating the demands of its junior partner LJP led by Chirag Paswan. The elections were fought under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, though Home Minister Amit Shah declared that the CM will be decided by the NDA Parties after the results are declared.
The Mahaghatbandhan (MGB) in contrast presented a picture of disunity on seat sharing among its constituent Parties. Finally, the RJD was allowed a larger share of seats (124) and the Congress Party had to satisfy itself with 60 as its share.
3. The NDA led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah ran a tight campaign focusing on Bihar