Mukhiya Jee Reports : Will Bihar see repetition in assembly polls

I REMEMBER the 1977 general election, Gandhi was kept out of power and Congress’s hopes of revival were dashed but single bye poll in Azamgarh - East UP where Indira Gandhi’s candidate Mohsina Kidwai victory revived Congress. Similar chances can come for Lalu Prasad.

Many political pundits do not agree with Lalu Prasad’s hopes to get a berth in the cabinet. His stay in Delhi kept him away from the masses while many of his voters feel that he has become elitist. People remember the marriage of the first two daughters of Lalu and Rabri where every common man of Bihar was part of it while the third daughter was married from a Delhi based five-star hotel. Lalu is a leader of the masses. It was his USP but his long stay of five years in Delhi alienated him from his voters.

Like cricket many feel that Lalu is still on the batting side and his own errors made Nitish bowl him out. Lalu’s defeat is not Nitish’s victory because even after three and-a-half years Nitish Kumar failed to deliver what people expected from him.

People are happy with the roads and "no kidnapping". Even Lalu supporters feel the same but it is not everything. There is no major investment in the state since Nitish Kumar became chief minister. Nitish is using central funds smartly giving a free hand to bureaucrats leading to corruption in every department.

There is approximately one year left for the Assembly elections in the state. No doubt once again Nitish will try his best to ride a smooth wave created by clean roads and the law and order situation. Nitish Kumar himself is the Home minister yet he failed to crate a better Bihar police force. Even after three years, the famous recruitment of inspectors is yet to conclude and mega plans are afoot to have more cadets in the Bihar police merely surviving on the Special Auxiliary Police. Day to day local law and order is being tackled by the SAP (of retired army persons).

Everyone knows Nitish Kumar’s close relation with bureaucrats of yesterday N K Singh and NK Singh’s relation with Mukesh Ambani but no leading business houses ever made any attempt to invest in industry in Bihar. It is a total failure of Nitish Kumar because more than 1000 days are sufficient for any visibility in the industrial sector.

Many political pundits say Nitish is smart version of Lalu meaning both belong to the same school of political thought. The Nitish government recruited teachers are getting a much lower salary than NREGA daily wage workers. Why didn’t Nitish Kumar think of Public Private Partnership in Health and Education sectors? The four medical colleges he started did not get the approval of the MCI even this year while state run other medical colleges already got many warnings from central agency - MCI. On the caste front, winner Digvijay Singh of Banka will get a berth in the Manmohan Singh cabinet which can mean trouble for Nitish Kumar.

No doubt, Central government funds have been used to the maximum where all former kidnappers have become civil contractor. So, here is the key to Nitish "Shushan" in which he still plays the game of power balancing using various tools.