E-Paper
New alignments add a twist to Bihar assembly polls in Mithilanchal
The JD-U and the RJD won 12 and 11 seats respectively out of the 30 seats in the Mithilanchal region when the two parties were allies in the 2015 assembly election.
Chotan Choudhary, 26, is an unemployed youth. He was earlier working in Delhi earning ₹15,000 a month, but after the Covid-19 pandemic he does not know what to do. He remains in his village Kurson in Bihar’s Darbhanga with his pregnant wife and mother and is trying to find employment in his home state.
“I can manage here with even less, but I need something. I can start a cyber café and a SBI customer service centre. I am seeing if the government schemes can help because I have no money,” he says, adding there could not be a more cruel joke with the unemployed youth than joblessness becoming a political issue to be lost in election rhetoric.
There are several others in the nearby areas who want to shift outside for a living, with agriculture no more remunerative due to the annual scourge of flood that destroys one complete crop every year. But flood is not even a poll issue.
“Go to Singhia or Rosera or any other place, you will find private buses for Delhi, UP, Gujarat and Bengal. After all, why are these buses plying? It is nothing new. They are plying because they are getting passengers. Political parties will talk about migration, but do nothing to check it. Nobody moves out by choice. It is thrust on the poor. We also struggle in farming due to lack of labourers, as most of them move out in search of better remuneration,” said Babban Singh, a farmer in Hardiya panchayat.
That sums up the truth of Mithilanchal which goes to polls for its 30 seats spread across Darbhanga, Samastipur and Madhubani in the second and third phase. Bihar Speaker Vijay Choudhary from Sarairanjan, ministers Vinod Narayan Jha, Madan Sahni, Lakshmeshwar Rai, Maheshwar Hazari and daughter-in-law of former minister late Kapildeo Kamat are in the fray.
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If one thought Covid-19 pandemic and its management will be a poll issue, it is wide off the mark. Covid-19 no more scares the villagers. Masks, santizer and social distancing were never a choice for those without choices and the scrambles at the political rallies have underlined that even Amitab Bachchan’s pleas on mobile phones to adopt safety measures mean nothing to them.
“In Bihar, elections have never been fought on issues and that is the bane of the state. This time employment, development and migration are at least part of political discourse. Earlier, when candidates moved around, people did have the opportunity to share their problems and at least elicit some assurance. Now, candidates have become dummies and elections revolve round mostly the big names in every party. Be it Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad or late Ram Vilas Paswan, these are the names that guide people’s choices, not their representatives,” said SM Jha, a retired university teacher in Darbhanga.
The stakes are high with both NDA and Grand Alliance (GA) banking heavily on Mithilanchal. In the 2015 assembly election, the Grand Alliance (GA) comprising JD-U, RJD and the Congress had swept the region, bagging 25 of the 30 assembly seats in Darbhanga, Samastipur and Madhubani, while BJP got just three.
This time, things have changed due to new alliances. The JD-U is back in the NDA fold while LJP has exited. For JD-U, which was the biggest party with 12 seats in 2015 in Mithilanchal, the challenge is bigger as the LJP has influence in Samastipur and has fielded candidates against it. For the RJD also, it is a tough task to retain its tally of 11 seats, though the party is enthused by the crowd response to Tejaswahi Prasad Yadav’s rallies.
In 2010, the NDA had got 22 of the 30 seats in Mithilanchal and JD-U general secretary and Bihar minister Sanjay Jha is convinced that it would do better this time.
“This time, Mithilanchal has got the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), airport at Darbhanga, automated barrage at Jainagar and the Bagmati flood management proposal. All these big-ticket projects will transform Mithilanchal. Besides, there is emphasis on tapping the potential of ‘makhana’ to make it a revenue earner. The social combination also favours the NDA,” he added.
The RJD, on the other hand, is confident that despite change in equation, it will be able to do well. “In Mithilanchal, nothing has changed. People are upset with the Nitish Kumar government and their anger will sink the NDA boat. There is massive migration from the area, as the culturally rich region has become poor. RJD has traditionally done well in Mithilanchal and it will do well due to people’s anger against the present dispensation,” said RJD MP Manoj Jha.
On Wednesday, addressing a rally in Darbhanga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the people not to fall in the trap of those who unleashed a reign of terror when they got the opportunity to govern and could once again halt Bihar’s development march.
Modi will be back again on November 1 for a rally in Samastipur. RJD spearhead Tejaswhi Praasad Yadav is also campaigning briskly and playing up joblessness to elicit good response from the youth.
