The 2020 legislative assembly election of Bihar commenced on the month of September to elect the members for the legislative assembly. There are totally three phases in the election for 243 seats. The first phase will be held on 28th October for 71 seats. The second phase will be held on 3rd November for 94 seats. The third phase will be held on 7th November for the remaining 78 seats. Finally, the result will be announced on the 10th of November.
The biggest issue happening in Bihar is inflation. The RJD leader attacked BJP by saying that the farmers are being attacked, unemployment and starvation are increasing. The GDP is falling and Bihar is undergoing an economic crisis. When the rates of onions were 50rupees they were talking now BJP is silent as it is raised to 80 rupees. This is what the RJD leader said during the campaign of phase 1. The campaigning for the phase 1 election was closed on October 26th, 2020.
In order to gain political ground in Bihar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced that it will contest independently against NDA and Mahagathbandhan. The NCP will contest for 145 seats in which the major part of it belongs to the Seemanchal area. The NCP party also brought up their star campaigner Sudip Pandey. The Seemanchal area is considered to be the majorly flood-affected area that includes West Champaran, East Champaran, Araria, Purnia, Madhubani, and Supaul.
Table of Contents
The political history of Bihar election
Politics in Bihar is been majorly dominated by political parties namely Janata Dal (United), and Rashtriya Janata Dal since the 1990s. With the rise in OBC castes, there were giant shifts in the politics of Bihar in the 1980s by replacing the people belonging to the upper castes in politics. The politician who won the election in 1990 belonging to the OBC caste is Lalu Prasad Yadav.
1990-1995: Lalu came to power
The Janata Dal won the highest number of seats and vote shares of about 122 seats and 25.61% vote share. Defeating Ram Sundar Das, Lalu Prasad Yadav became the Chief Minister of Bihar. Lalu mainly believed in the OBC votes and Muslim votes who were supporting the Congress before. Lalu mainly aimed to give dignity to those backward caste people after coming to power. So the lower caste people considered him as a hero as he defeated the upper caste people to become the Chief Minister of Bihar.
1995-2000: Lalu loses his power due to the fodder scam
In 1995, Lalu came to power with a considerable increase in seats and vote shares for Janata Dal .i.e. 147 seats and 28% vote shares. As soon as he came to power, a government ride was held in which they found our 950 crores as embezzlement scam in January 1996. The documents found showed that he invested in non existed large scale companies to buy animal feed. Due to the growing pressure, Lalu resigned from his Chief Minister seat in June 1997.
2000-2005: Lalu loses his power
The new RJD party won with 124 seats and 28.34% vote shares in the 2000 election. Rabri Devi won the election and became the Chief Minister of Bihar. The seats in Bihar were also reduced to 243 seats. Rabri Devi failed to tackle the violence going on in Bihar. The violence is mainly due to the lack of development. The state became a forcing house for poverty, corruption, and violence.
2005-2010: Nitish Kumar, the new Chief Minister
Although there was much opposition, the RJD party won the highest number of seats and vote shares. Nitish Kumar won the election against Lalu. He mainly worked on removing the sense of lawlessness after coming to power. On top of that, he took more effort into anti-violence. That resulted in a reduced number of crimes in Bihar.
2010-2015: Nitish Kumar continues to be the Chief Minister
The JDU came with the highest number of seats and vote shares in the 2010 elections. Nitish Kumar not only supported his caste, but he supported other castes as well. He worked on many lacking parts in Bihar which resulted in reduced poverty, improved education, and enhanced condition of health infrastructure. Nitish Kumar resigned his seat when JDU was brushed off by BJP in the Bihar Lok Sabha elections.
2015-2020: Mahagathbandhan
In the 2015 elections, a grand alliance took place between RJD, INC, AND JDU. The mahagathbandhan was very successful winning 178 seats out of 243 seats. Nitish Kumar came back to power in 2015. He declared Bihar as a dry state. As the RJD party was sinking, Nitish Kumar decided to join hands with BJP and this gesture ensured that he will continue as the CM of Bihar. As the connection between JDU and BJP became weak, Nitish Kumar going to face opposition in the 2020 elections.
The election based on the caste system
Even after 65 years of independence, the caste-based political strategy is the main weapon for most of the politicians to grab the votes of the people. The most affected are the backward castes. The politicians inject in the mind of backward castes that if they don’t vote then their reservations in educational institutions and jobs would be in danger.
To win the elections, Nitish Kumar used a poor strategy of having a friendly gesture with Lalu Prasad’s RJD. They both started praising BJP president Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi to cover the rural voters. Even the lower castes like SC were warned. It is so saddened that the people of Bihar are not judged based on the knowledge and data they acquire and they are awarded based on historical perception.
The Bihar election clearly shows that the politicians are playing in the people’s lives with the caste and no one is taking efforts to erase the prevailing caste-based politics. The people of India not only Bihar believe that we get a successful leader who realizes the importance of politics and works towards equality rules and no caste system.
The problem of returning labors due to covid-19(jobs)
Bihar is considered to be the most affected concerning the ongoing COVID pandemic. It is mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, a major amount of migrated workers come from Bihar after Uttar Pradesh. Secondly, there are no economic growth and social upliftment for the people of Bihar under the Nitish Kumar government.
During this economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many laborers who work physically were not able to go to jobs normally. The people in Bihar were undergoing a financial crisis. In the meantime, the election commission team got back after finishing the final inspections in Bihar. They were about to announce the commencement dates of the elections. After taking the necessary measures including temperature checks, masks, gloves, the number of people in each polling booth, the election in Bihar is initialized in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic.
People in Bihar are affected due to the 2020 elections and the prevailing inflation. Worried to see people losing their job in the Covid pandemic. In the meantime, the government of Bihar decided to conduct elections for the legislative assembly. In this kind of drastic economic downfall situation, the people are suffering and cannot able to manage their lives. Is election so important during this pandemic? The government of Bihar must think of the people’s situations and take decisions accordingly.
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