48-year-old Madhulika Singh’s husband was shot dead with a country-made gun during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s infamous ‘Jungle Raj’. A Nitish Kumar loyalist, she refuses to come to terms with the Grand Alliance.
I’m happy with Modi at the Centre, but the BJP is not my first choice for Bihar. I would vote for Nitish, but I don’t want Lalu back in power. Anybody could hire a contract killer for peanuts, and get away with it when he was Chief Minister.
— Madhulika Singh
This wasn’t exactly a conversation one expected to have at Samastipur’s Apsara Beauty Parlour. But what Madhulika told us contradicts the common notion that Bihar’s women are leaning towards Nitish Kumar.
Daisy, 27, is newly-married and still getting used to her toe-rings (sign of a married Indian woman in some parts of the country).
I want Nitish to win. Since the time he came to power, he has helped students. Girls in my family, including me, have benefitted from his education policies. One couldn’t think of moving out of the house after dark, but now things are so much better for us.
— Daisy, Beautician
For 23-year-old Anu, who works as a beautician at “Samastipur’s best salon”, safety is as much a deciding factor, as is Nitish’s alliance with Lalu.
Intentions, and not clothes, are wrong. Kidnappings and corruption was rampant during Lalu’s 15 years. Did we see any development? Absolutely not. Nitish has done a lot, but why did he have to join hands with Lalu? I will vote for the BJP because they also deserve a chance.
— Anu, Beautician
But “women’s safety as a political issue is passé”, according to Poonam who works in the Indian Railways. She says, “no party can guarantee our safety, and there are more important issues like how dal now costs Rs 250/kg.”
I will drag my son to the polling booth, stand on his head and ensure he does not vote for the BJP.
— Poonam Kalyani, Employee, Indian Railways
It took a whole week for us to meet a Congress voter in Bihar. Not a party worker, or a dedicated Gandhi supporter. But someone who’s maintained her loyalties from the beginning. A fiery government employee, Poonam Kalyani’s worst fear is of the Railways being privatised by the BJP.
This young generation gets swayed by free wi-fi, laptops and scooties. But when everything is privatised, the same college-educated children will be slaving away for big corporates at meagre salaries.
— Poonam Kalyani, Employee, Indian Railways
59.5% women came out to vote in the first phase of the Bihar elections. That’s 4% more than the men in the 49 districts that voted on Monday.
The Nitish government’s bicycle scheme for school-going girls, vocational training schemes for Muslim and SC/ST girls, and talk of prohibition just before the elections spawned the popular perception that most women would vote for Nitish Kumar.
While Lalu could prove to be a liability in the JD(U)‘s scheme to secure the female vote, the Grand Alliance would hope to make good on any possible losses with the RJD’s core vote bank of Muslims and Yadavs.
The BJP, though, does not appear to be the first choice, and could be a default option for women who simply don’t want Lalu back in government.
For full coverage of Bihar Polls 2015, click here.
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