Will History Remember This Moment as the End of Bihar's Nitish-Lalu Era or the Beginning of a BJP One? |
Listen to this article:
Nitish Kumar’s exit as Bihar chief minister after nearly 20 years in the saddle marks the end of an era. But will his successor, Samrat Choudhary, herald the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) era in the state?
The question is moot, given the complexity of the composition of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as that of Bihar’s society. Despite Nitish’s departure from the chief ministership, his party, the Janata Dal (United), has 85 MLAs against the BJP’s 89. The two parties are nearly equal in strength in the Assembly, but their roots are sharply different – as different as the parties are in terms of their social composition and ideological moorings.
These structural and ideological differences have manifested before – every time the two parties falling apart thrice before coming together again. The replacement of Nitish with the Deputy Chief Minister from the BJP can hardly be expected to smother these differences.
Patna’s political air is surcharged with emotion right now, with JD(U) cadres, a section of BJP supporters and people lamenting Nitish’s exit. He performed impressively on the parameters of infrastructure – roads, electricity, schools and hospitals were in focus like never before. The Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and the Mahadalits, who together constitute about 50% of the state’s voters, have reason to miss him, for he gave them preferential treatment in development schemes as well as in the political structure. And so do women, who never........