After its landslide victory, the Grand Alliance is leaving no stone unturned to make the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister on November 20 a grand event. The electoral battering of the BJP in the Delhi state elections did not have much external impact, barring raising a few speculation about whether the BJP could be worsted in the election in Bihar and the implications of that in terms of governance at the Centre and the implementation of the government’s promise to ease of doing business in India and introduce other policy and procedural reforms. The veteran leaders had raised questions over fixing responsibility within the BJP for the Bihar loss. In the just-concluded Bihar assembly election, a Grand Alliance of three parties – the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress – swept the election, winning 178 of the 243 seats in the assembly.
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The positive contributions of Nitish Kumar government in the field of economic and social development, particularly for women worked to the advantage of Grand Secular Alliance. Asked if he thought Kumar should lead a non-BJP formation, Singh said, “I believe Nitish Kumar has image, ability. diligence…to do so”.
During the campaign BJP made a few serious mistakes according to the Indian news media.
Relations: All this implies that whatever course correction Modi and the BJP may undertake domestically because of Bihar, our external relations are on a different track.
Then, early this year, voters dealt the BJP a stunning blow. The meeting was presided by the party president Lalu Prasad. Dozens of writers and poets have returned their prestigious Sahitya Akademi awards to protest the silence of the Modi government following the killings of three intellectuals allegedly by Hindu zealots. Booker prize victor and activist Arundhati Roy also returned her National Award because she was “shocked” at the “growing intolerance” fostered by the present government. It is not for him to decide and all parties concerned will have to take a call.
For Modi’s critics, the journey downhill for him and his party has begun.
Nitish Kumar will take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the third consecutive time on 20th of this month.
After the recent poll drubbing in Bihar assembly elections, the BJP is on introspection mode to analyse what went wrong during their highly-charged poll campaigns, that did not result in votes.
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One might dismiss the charges made by another quartet of the party, all younger and party MPs from Bihar, against the top BJP leadership holding them responsible for the party’s loss in the state.
