Opposition Missteps Cost Bihar Race

As expected, a disjointed opposition has surrendered quite meekly before the formidable NDA in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections. While poll pundits may attribute a number of reasons behind this poor show by the opposition, one simple fact that no one can ignore is that internal squabbles cost the opposition bloc dearly in this election. It all started with the failure to agree on a seat-sharing formula. How irresponsibly the opposition parties behaved in the run-up to the elections can be judged from the fact that, till the very last minute of filing nominations, several parties threatened to walk out of the coalition as they were not given the seats of their choice. Clearly, the electorate did not like such irresponsible behaviour and voted massively in favour of the NDA. As a matter of fact, they were left with no other alternative, as they wondered how the same coalition could run state affairs if it could not decide on a simple seat-sharing formula.

In contrast, the NDA managed to solve all the contentious issues that could harm the alliance’s electoral prospects even before the election dates were announced. For instance, there was a lot of talk about the relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United). The issue was amicably resolved when the top leadership of both parties decided to contest an equal number of seats, completely burying the question of senior or junior partner in the coalition. Moreover, the two big partners in the NDA managed to mend fences with the LJP, led by Chirag Paswan, to keep their house in order. Secondly, although the NDA has not officially announced its chief ministerial candidate, it has given enough indications that the alliance is fighting the elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, ignoring the threat of anti-incumbency. In comparison, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav virtually forced the opposition camp to declare him as the chief ministerial candidate. It may be stated here that, on his part, Tejashwi not only put pressure on alliance partners but also did not listen to his father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and removed the candidates put up by the Yadav patriarch, an act that did not go down well even with staunch RJD loyalists.

There are several other instances to show that the opposition alliance in Bihar tried to win the electoral race by putting the cart before the horse. As a result, it was found wanting in raising the issues troubling the people of Bihar effectively to corner the incumbent government. Their main issue was the so-called ‘vote theft’ raised by Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in every election rally. They thought that, by raising such a moral issue, the opposition would get maximum support without realising that they could not furnish a single case of deletion of a genuine voter from the revised voters’ list. As usual, without any concrete proof, the issue fizzled out even before a single vote was cast, leaving the opposition to bite the dust.