Bihar’s Positive Takeaway: Bitter Acrimony But No Poll Violence

The election frenzy in Bihar, marked by venom-spewing campaign by both sides, has so far been free of violence.

The 2015 Bihar election will, in all probability, go down in the annals of the state’s history as one which was fought fiercely and bitterly. But more importantly, not a drop of blood was shed in a state notorious earlier for gratuitous violence during polls.

It had one more first to its credit. Never before had any prime minister addressed as many rallies as Narendra Modi did. By the time campaigning ended on November 3, Modi had addressed 30 rallies, excluding the one in August at Ara (which was a government function) where he announced the Rs 1.25 lakh-crore special package for cash-strapped Bihar.

In comparison, RJD president Lalu Prasad addressed 242 rallies, small and big. This despite doctors having advised him to go slow owing to his heart surgery in August 2014. But 67-year-old Lalu, who has been debarred from contesting elections following his conviction in a fodder scam in October 2013, listened to none.

Lalu’s Comeback Bid

In his bid to make his party stage a comeback in Bihar, which he ruled uninterrupted for 15 years from 1990 to 2005, Lalu vowed to halt the BJP’s march to ensure a third term for his ‘younger brother’ Nitish Kumar (whom he, till July, was reluctant to project as the CM nominee).

Nitish, much like his ‘elder brother’ Lalu, addressed 220 rallies in every nook and corner of the state, where he mostly harped on the PM’s DNA slur against a CM.

In fact, much before the Election Commission announced a five-phase poll for Bihar on September 9, the electoral battle in this crucial state began in right earnest on July 25. This day Modi addressed his first public meeting in Muzaffarpur ahead of the Model Code of Conduct coming into force. It was in Muzaffarpur where the PM questioned Nitish’s DNA, which eventually became a poll issue in certain pockets.

After the Development Doles

Before the war of words turned murkier, the battle of Bihar started on the development plank. Ten days after Modi’s special package announcement for Bihar (on August 18), Nitish too announced his vision document which unveiled a Rs 2.7 lakh-crore development plan for the state if voted to power for the third consecutive term.

The ambitious scheme, which Nitish termed was his personal vision, included free electricity, water, allowance for unemployed youth, and, above all, 35% reservation for women in state government jobs.

So far so good. But as the contest grew fierce, the barbs flew thick and fast. From terms like ‘shaitan’, ‘brahma pishach’ (super demon), ‘3 Idiots’, ‘Chhatti ka doodh’ and other unprintable derogatory terms were used which vitiated the poll atmosphere.

In general, the people of Bihar nowadays do not appreciate such disparaging remarks, no matter who, and under what circumstances, said so. Notably, the state has undergone a metamorphosis in the last two decades. From extreme violence (marked by booth looting) in the 1990s to the 2015 peaceful assembly polls, the transformation will bear testimony to this undisputed fact.

(The writer is a Bihar-based journalist)