We know that from this week the Bihar elections 1 stage voting has started and in Bihar many confusions and controversies are going on, at 1st it takes me whole 2 days to understand Bihar politics history and what’s going on now there. So I divided this article in 4 parts – firstly we take a look at parties and at their history, secondly we look at their manifesto, after that we see their corruption records and lastly we see how politicians entered Sushant Singh Rajput in political campaign and also bihar real issues. Voting for the first phase on October 28 will cover 71 assembly constituencies and it has been done with lots of confused voters, while the second-phase voting on November 3 will cover 94 seats. The third phase of voting on November 7 will cover 78 assembly seats. Counting of votes for all seats will take place on November 10. Besides, postal ballot facility will be provided wherever required and requested. Social distancing norms will need to be followed at public gatherings during the poll campaign. Which we rarely see now, anywhere in India.
INTRODUCTION
RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL (RJD)
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is formed by Lalu Prasad Yadav on 5th July 1997. Lalu Prasad Yadav who was the ex-President of the Janata Dal was evicted from the party on charges of embezzlement over farm support funds in Bihar. It was then that Yadav, along with Ranghuvansh Prasad Singh, Kanti Singh, 17 other Lok Sabha MPs, 8 Rajya Sabha MPs and thousands of his supporters came together in Delhi and founded the Rashtriya Janata Dal. RJD has its main base in Bihar, though it eventually became significant in the north-eastern states of Manipur and Nagaland. In Bihar, the Yadavs and Muslims, the majority of the population in Bihar, form the mass base of the party. Lalu Prasad Yadav is the President of RJD.
JANTA DAL UNITED (JDU)
The Janata Dal (United), commonly referred to as the JD(U), is a regional political party in India. Its mass base is primarily in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand. The founder of the JD(U) is Sharad Yadav. The party traces its roots to the Janata Party, founded by Jayaprakash Narayan, the stalwart who united all anti-Congress parties during Indira Gandhi’s reign. The Janata Dal, which was a merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, the Jan Morcha and Congress(S), was split in 1999. The split took place over tensions when Karnataka Chief Minister J.H. Patel lent support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It was this issue that made the Janata Dal split into the Janata Dal (Secular) and Janata Dal (United) in 1999. The JD(S) was formed under the leadership of H.D. Deve Gowda and the Janata Dal remained under the guidance of Sharad Yadav. In October 2003, the Lokshakti Party, and the Samata Party (also a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal) – led by veteran politician and former Defence Minister George Fernandes – merged with the Sharad Yadav’s faction of the Janata Dal. This merger led to the creation of JD(U).
Today, the JD(U) has a prominent presence in Bihar, especially with leader Nitish Kumar as the present Chief Minister. It was the main opposition to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar. But the two rivals joined hands just a few months before the 2015 legislative assembly elections in the state against the BJP-led alliance. The JD(U) was in an alliance with the new rival, BJP.
LOK JANSHAKTI PARTY
Roughly translated as “Party based on people’s manpower” is a regional political party of India, having a prominent presence in the state of Bihar. Its mass base is primarily from the so-called lower-caste and Dalit communities in the state. The party was founded by Indian veteran politician Ram Vilas Paswan, in the year 2000. He headed a break-away faction of members, who split from the Janata Dal (United), in one of the many factionalisms of the Janata Parivar. He formed the pro-poor, pro-oppressed party calling it the Lok Janshakti Party, commonly called the LJP.
PARTIES MANIFESTONDA
The NDA announced that the JDU will contest on 122 seats and the BJP on 121. As per the plans, JDU will give 7 seats to the Hindustani Awam Morcha and the BJP will have to accommodate 11 Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidates. These are the main promise of JDU –
- Enhancing skill-set of youths by setting up ITIs in every district and polytechnic institutes in all sub-divisions to brighten their employment prospects.
- Financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh as grant and interest-free loan to women to encourage entrepreneurship.
- Providing irrigation to every agriculture field.
- Extending health services to all people and animals.
The BJP and the JDU are both the leading constituents of the ruling Bihar NDA but they have come up with separate manifestos. BJP main promises were –
- Creating 19 lakh job opportunities including filling 3 lakh vacancies in schools and colleges within a year.
- Free Covid-19 vaccine to all when it is available.
- Making 1 crore women financially independent.
- Providing pucca houses to 30 lakh people by 2022.
- Making all technical courses including medical and engineering available in Hindi language.
Rashtriya Janata Dal
RJD was the 1st one to release its manifesto, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has been aggressive with party’s job promises. Their highlighted promise are –
- 10 lakh government jobs to be cleared in the first meeting of the cabinet.
- Examination fee while submitting application forms to be waived off completely.
- The government to pay for travel to reach examination centres.
- Equal pay for equal work for school teachers.
- To bring legislation to make the three farm bills passed by Parliament inapplicable in Bihar.
- Doubling the remuneration given to Jivika Didis (women volunteers).
Congress released its manifesto separately, they called their manifesto declaration to change, their promises are
- Free electricity to all farmers and the poor.
- Complete loan waiver for farmers.
Ensuring adequate prices for crops to farmers –
- Farm bills passed by Parliament recently to be nullified in Bihar.
- Unemployment allowance of Rs 15,000 a month to youths until they get a job.
- A pension scheme for widows ensuring Rs. 1,000 a month to them.
LOK JANSHAKTI PARTY
The LJP headed by Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan has made the maximum noise in the Bihar election. Their promises are –
- Government policy that focuses on Bihar First Bihari First mantra.
- Free bus travel for all women.
- Equal pay for equal work.
- All vacancies in government offices to be filled up ASAP.
- Setting up of Youth Commission.
- Construction of a grand Sita Mata Mandir at Sitamarhi, the birthplace of Sita, the wife of Lord Ram.
- Establishing state-of-the-art cancer hospitals in Bihar.
PLURALS PARTY
Floated by debutant politician Pushpam Priya, the Plurals party has made noise more on social media than on the ground in election-field Bihar. The party has said Bihar has been under development lockdown for 30 years. It has promised to:
- Create 88 lakh jobs including 8 lakh in the government sector.
- End “fake” prohibition in Bihar.
- Set up a law university in Begusarai.
- Make Bihar a global tourism hub.
- Ensure equal pay for equal work.
- Create eight development zones, each having eight industrial zones, each zone having 1 lakh start-ups.
CORRUPTION RECORD
As per Tejaswini Yadav, there have been 55 scams that took place in the Bihar government in the past 15 years. No action or inquiry has been undertaken against any official or a political leader by the government. A minimum Rs 3,300 crore of money has been misappropriated in Srijan scam. Who will return the thousands of crores that have been looted from the state?
There is another allegation that a huge amount of money was misappropriated by officials of Patna civic body last year during floods and other accusations are Nitish Kumar had announced the Rs 2.70 lakh-crore ‘Saat Nischay’ scheme for Bihar’s development during the 2015 assembly election campaign.
But after a year and a half Nitish has declared that State doesn’t have much funds to fight floods so he sought help from central government, so where is 2.70 lakh crore fund..!?
SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT DEATH
It’s sad to see political parties cashing actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in Bihar politics, at 1st it was the BJP who printed the poster on Sushant Singh death and sought votes on it, with slogans like “Na bhulenge, Na bhulne denge” . Both the BJP and the JD(U) have been at the forefront of seeking justice for the late actor, a native of Bihar, whose father still lives in Patna. If Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar pushed for a CBI probe into the death and dispatched a police team led by Patna City Superintendent of Police Vinay Tiwari to Mumbai for investigation, the BJP, which is in the opposition in Maharashtra, raked up the issue of the death not being probed as per requisite protocol.The attention to the actor’s death that was gauged by political statements and the show of solidarity by visiting politicians who came to condole the death led to the perception that Sushant Singh Rajput will as much be an issue that will dominate the political scene in the run-up to the elections as would issues that came post Covid-19 – jobs losses and the floods.
REAL ISSUE IN BIHAR
That Bihar is India’s poorest and most backward state is undeniable. The facts speak for themselves. But what makes its situation truly unique is that Bihar is the only state in India where the incidence of poverty is uniformly at the highest level (46-70%) in all the sub-regions. The annual real per capita income of Bihar at Rs 3650 is about a third of the national average of Rs 11,625. Bihar is also the only Indian state where the majority of the population – 52.47% – is illiterate. Its infant mortality rate is 62 per 1000, which is below the national average of 66 per 1000.
All-India per capita developmental expenditure during the last three years of Rs 7935, Bihar’s is less than half at Rs 3633. While development expenditure depends on a bunch of factors including a state’s contribution to the national exchequer, no logic can explain away the per capita of the Tenth Plan, which at Rs 2533.80 is less than a third of that of states like Gujarat (Rs 9289.10), Karnataka (Rs 8260) and Punjab (Rs 7681.20). Bihar fared poorly receiving only Rs. 10833.00 crores while AP got Rs. 15542.00 crores. Bihar has also been neglected as far as net loans from the centre are concerned.
The results of the economic strangulation of Bihar can be seen in the abysmally low investments possible in the state government’s four major development thrusts. Bihar’s per capita spending on Roads is Rs.44.60, which is just 38% of the national average, which is Rs.117.80. Similarly, for Irrigation and Flood Control Bihar spends just Rs.104.40 on a per capita basis as opposed to the national average of Rs.199.20.
These are just some numbers but the actual situation on the ground is really worst, unemployment is at its highest in Bihar and higher studies are taken as a joke by politician nowadays.
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