Patna: Bihar's new Grand Alliance government (GA) of seven political parties led by JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar has immense challenges ahead before the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Though it has also left the BJP on a lone journey for the general elections due in 2024, JDU and RJD -- being largely regional parties -- also have a long way to go before they enter the central fray, that too as an alliance.
Moreover, Bihar's past political history adds more possible dynamics to the political scenario here, given that whenever two political forces in the state joined hands, they won the elections. The 2015 and 2020 assembly elections in Bihar were examples that should be taken note of. Hence, coming together of two political forces on one platform is very likely to be a rough sailing for the BJP.
Earlier, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was terming the promises made by RJD's Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to the public as baseless. Kumar was questioning all the promises that Tejashwi had made to the public, while the former used to pass taunts on the latter. In such a situation, establishing synergy between JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav does not seem to be an easy thing to achieve. How will they (JDU and RJD) will overcome these past 'hangover hurdles' — only time will tell.
The strength of the previous NDA government in the Bihar assembly was 128, in which chief minister Nitish Kumar's JDU had 46 seats, while BJP's seat share was 74, besides smaller players like Mukesh Sahni's Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha with four seats each respectively. During that time, smaller players such as VIP was exerting pressure on the NDA coalition government in Bihar, throwing tantrums or threatening to rock the coalition boat. They were posing themselves as the kingmakers.
Read: Nitish will try to split RJD, new Bihar govt to fall before completing term: Sushil Modi
On several occasions, VIP chief Mukesh Sahni had threatened to withdraw support to the NDA coalition government in Bihar. Similarly, Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha threatened to come out of the coalition government in Bihar. "The number plays an important role for a political party to sharpen its bargaining power while forming the government. Nitish Kumar is sitting comfortably and donning the hat of the chief ministership in Bihar because RJD wants to come to power in the state," said an RJD source.
"The RJD was helming Bihar for more than 15 years and if the party does not come to power again, it will be difficult for RJD to survive as a regional party in the state. The RJD would have to take lessons from the past mistakes that the party had committed after the formation of government in 2015. When RJD emerged as the single largest party in Bihar with 80 seats, its leaders felt that the chief minister should belong to their party. Hence, RJD leaders targeted Nitish Kumar, who was second with 69 seats. Ultimately, Nitish Kumar changed his goal post and went to the BJP fold to form government in the state," the source added.
The Bihar CM may also be facing the bogey of 'return of Jungle Raj' in the state, but some of the political pundits believe that 'Jungle Raj' can be dealt with firmly using the police force. Nonetheless, the real challenge will be taking forward the state on the path of development by both CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav. In the new political scenario in Bihar, both the leader are well aware that financial assistance to the state will not be available to the state so easily. Besides, industrialists refrain from investing in Bihar because of the lack of ambiance and other shortcomings in the state.
Now, in the new situation, it is likely that BJP will also put pressure on entrepreneurs not to invest in the state. Hence, the state will have to rely on revenue from domestic sources. Bihar has an agrarian and labour-intensive economy, where unemployment is a big issue. The new government in Bihar may opt for Punjab and Delhi model to put a check on corruption. Besides, the government will also focus on curtailing expenditure on new projects in order to augment resources.
