Opinion Ram Madhav writes: Bihar’s voters have chosen good governance over caste politics
The BJP’s ability to identify the right mix of electoral issues and create a powerful messaging mechanism to disseminate them is another element of its strength
As far as alliances are concerned, Congress, as always, was an albatross around the RJD’s neck. It demanded and took more than 60 seats to contest in, and ended up more or less decimated. (Illustration: C R sasikumar) 
We need to find a new vocabulary to describe the near-sweep by the BJP and its allies in the Bihar Assembly elections. This result has once again established the saffron party’s invincibility in the Hindi heartland.
To understand the results, one needs to understand the winning formula the party leadership diligently implements in every election. For the BJP leadership, politics is a 24/7 activity and it takes every electoral battle seriously. Keeping the machinery well-oiled and active at all times is an important element of its strategy. Contrast this with the Opposition. Rahul Gandhi has acquired notoriety for his absence from the political scene more than active participation. In Bihar, he launched an aggressive campaign over so-called “vote chori” a couple of months ago, but then disappeared from the scene for several weeks. The media reported that he was somewhere in Latin America complaining about the Indian electoral system to university students.
The BJP’s winning formula includes a focus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and successful governance. In the Bihar election campaign, Modi addressed huge rallies at 14 places covering key districts. He began his campaign on October 24 from the ancestral village of Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur — a highly respected former Chief Minister, whom the Modi government had honoured with the Bharat Ratna — in Samastipur district. Symbolic though the gesture may be, it did send a strong message across the state that the NDA was committed to providing a clean, honest government that is friendly to marginalised people, qualities generally attributed to Thakur. Data show that Samastipur (71.74 per cent), and other constituencies where the PM campaigned extensively like Begusarai (69.87 per cent) and Muzaffarpur (71.81 per cent), saw higher turnout.
The BJP’s ability to identify the right mix of electoral issues and create a powerful messaging mechanism to disseminate them is another element of its strength. The Union government’s welfare programmes, which became a big help for women, the elderly and the underprivileged in the past decade, led to ordinary people developing trust in Modi’s governance. Modi used that image and his tribute to Thakur to set the tone for the electoral battle as one between good governance and “jungle raj”. The threat of the return of “jungle raj”, synonymous with the government of Lalu Prasad Yadav, became the singular theme in this election. While people who lived through the Lalu years remembered those dreadful times, the fear of the return of lawlessness also became a dominant electoral theme even among younger voters.
The Opposition looked helpless to counter this shrewd and sharp BJP attack. Tejashwi Yadav, despite his efforts to create a different image for himself in the past five years, was unable to come out of his father’s shadow. His campaign also failed to convince voters that the RJD could provide good governance. If anything, the approach of some of the party’s spokespersons only reinforced its poor image. While the BJP’s good governance agenda was effectively presented to the voters through extensive campaigning by several chief ministers and central ministers, Yadav was left to campaign alone, with nobody from the Opposition coming forward wholeheartedly to counter the BJP’s attack focussed on “jungle raj”.
The BJP’s organisational strength is another major weapon that no other party can combat. Home Minister Amit Shah, an expert in electoral management, camped in the state for several weeks and stitched together an intense and organised campaign across all 243 assembly segments. More than 900 senior leaders from across the country, deputed to Bihar for two months to manage the campaign at the grassroots level, kept the local party machinery active and ensured outreach to each and every household. In addition, the party always enjoys the support of the Sangh Parivar, too.
As far as alliances are concerned, Congress, as always, was an albatross around the RJD’s neck. It demanded and took more than 60 seats to contest in, and ended up more or less decimated. On the other hand, the JD(U), the BJP’s ally led by Nitish Kumar, played a major role in securing this historic mandate. Kumar enjoys a good image in the state, and has created history by having served as Chief Minister for nearly 20 years now. This victory established Modi’s credentials as an able alliance manager once again.
But the most important message from this election result was the end of caste politics in Bihar. Bereft of any credible agenda, Yadav pinned his hopes solely on the rotten M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) formula. The fact that he himself trailed for several rounds in the family stronghold of Raghopur, besides the dismal performance of his party, showed that the voters opted for good governance over caste loyalty. That is the real good news from this election, which will change Bihar’s destiny in the coming years.
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
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