Unity Eludes Opposition Bloc in Bihar

Lack of unity among opposition parties may play a crucial role in deciding the winner in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar. While the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has managed to forge unity among its various constituents in time, the electorate are still in the dark about opposition candidates in their respective constituencies.

Bihar’s principal opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), is adamant about contesting 140 seats, while the Congress is demanding 65–70 seats, leaving only a handful for smaller parties like the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), JMM, IIP and AAP, despite their significant influence in certain pockets. Ignoring these smaller political parties may not be a wise idea.

Due to widespread poverty, Bihar has long remained a stronghold of the Left parties. In the present Assembly, their combined strength stands at 18, with CPI(ML) holding 12 seats. The party, which had a better strike rate than the Congress in the last Assembly elections, is now demanding more seats, arguing that the grand old party has little presence in the state at present. Allocating more seats to the Congress, they claim, may prove disastrous. Similar apprehensions have been expressed by RJD too. However, the Congress is in no mood to accept this reality and continues to insist on contesting more seats.

As a result, in several constituencies, more than one opposition party has fielded candidates, leaving voters perplexed about the future of the alliance even if it comes to power. For the record, the RJD and the Congress had won 75 and 19 seats respectively in the last Assembly elections in a House of 243.

After its poor performance in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, Bihar could have provided the opposition camp an opportunity to redeem itself from the twin setbacks, especially after preventing the BJP juggernaut from attaining a simple majority in the last general elections. Issues such as anti-incumbency, the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, and the lack of progress could have been effectively used by the opposition to corner the ruling alliance. Instead, they are caught up in squabbles over seat-sharing rather than presenting a united front on issues affecting the people.

The internal differences among the opposition constituents over seat allocation had reached a point where the CPI(ML) and IIP even threatened to quit the formation. The crisis was defused only after the intervention of Rahul Gandhi. Apart from seat-sharing, the question of leadership remains a bone of contention between the Congress and RJD.

At present, Tejashwi Yadav appears to be the most viable chief ministerial candidate to challenge incumbent Nitish Kumar. Various opinion polls have shown Tejashwi as the frontrunner against the JD(U) veteran. However, the Congress has opposed this idea, which could severely damage the opposition’s electoral prospects in the November elections.