Reading Bihar Election 2020 Results. What is there for Biharis?

With 125 seats National Democratic Alliance once more secured its victory in a neck and neck fight with Mahagathbandhan in Bihar Assembly Election 2020. The final result declared last midnight after hours of high tension political drama. Manoj Jha RJD alleged that counting foul on 8 seats in which Mahagathbandhan candidates were told they won but later declared lost. 

Bihar Election 2020 has been thoroughly exciting and subject of primetime discussion for nationwide. More than half of the central government cabinet along with top firebrand leaders of BJP held rallies in favour of NDA. 

RJD and Mahgathbandhan which seemed out of the race in beginning brought NDA on it knee through organized campaigns, promises and a high number of crowd turnout in Tejaswi’s rally. 31-year-old Tejaswi Yadav successfully changed the election environment in his favour. Young RJD chief through is frequent but well-planned rallies created the situation of Anti-incumbency against the existing Chief Minister of Bihar and gave a very close fight. 

Nevertheless, the Bihar election result offers more than what is seems between NDA and MGB. Here are a few of my take away from the final result. 

Bihar has Chosen a Strong Opposition – With 110 MGB’s legislative member and 8 from AIMIM, BSP, LJP and independent collectively forms a very diverse and strong opposition. With this much opposition voice in assembly, it would be almost impossible for the state government to shy away from serving the Bihari population. As it is said, “Only Strong Opposition Can Keep Ruling Government in Check”. We have the example of Modi led central government and the reckless UP government functioning without an opposition. 

What does the voting percentage say? None of the party managed to cross 25 per cent of the vote share. Second leading party BJP failed to even cross 20 per cent of the total vote share. Whereas JD (U) barely got near to 16 per cent. Interestingly LJP despite contesting alone manage to retain its core vote and end up with 5.6 percentage of total vote share. The vote percentage share depicts that no leading party has got a clear mandate. The voter was not in complete favour of any other party. Though the RJD managed to increase its vote percentage share and pull themselves close to the 25 per cent. The picture however clearly states that instead of giving clear mandate voters preferring their party consciously. So the contesting parties need to work hard in convincing their voters.

Nitish Kumar, BJP, and LJP – Keeping the BJP-LJP conspiracy theory aside, the damage LJP has done to Nitish Kumar and the JD (U) will be remembered for a long time in Bihar politics. For the first time, JD (U) has become a minority in the alliance. This will put Nitish Kumar under a lot of pressure. The best possible case scenario is Nitish Kumar will try hard to clean his image as Sushan Babu by bringing more pro-people policies in the state. It will be really interesting to watch how Nitish Kumar is going to govern this time if he swore as the Chief Minister of Bihar again. 

The emergence of New Party and the new Energy – For long Majorly JDU or RJD or their alliance partner has shaped the Bihar politics. The emergence of communist parties, HAM, VIP, and AIMIM has indicated the era of more competitive politics in the future. The emergence of these small and few other which this time failed to won any seat has opened the door for the alternative third front. These small community based political parties can surely bargain for the social and political upliftment of their communities which has been long deprived of the development. 

Tejasvi – Young leader of RJD undoubtedly proven himself as a worthy politician in the future of Bihar politics. He has lost the chief minister seat but surely emerged as a strong opponent. He through his campaign not just influenced the election agenda but stood as a wall between the NDA and its victory. 

MGB in this election has managed to come close to the victory but couldn’t make it. Surely, the party has shown a great deal of promise yet lot of works needs to be done on the ground. 

However, lately, a lot has been said about AIMIM. Though, it’s illogical to call AIMIM as a B team of BJP. These small parties have an equal right to contest as any other traditional parties. And if people have preferred these parties than surely traditional political organizations needs to introspect instead of blaming.

Several marginalized communities have been voiceless and left out in mainstream politics of Bihar and the current verdict in favour of these small parties reflecting the disappointments.