I’ll admit it upfront that I liked it when Nitish Kumar broke up his alliance with BJP and decided to go solo in his previous term. I loved how pulled up a Naveen Patnaik in order to become the face of Bihar. Brand Bihar.
Of course, with the ‘2014 wave’ still a phenomenon, it would have been difficult for Nitish to hold onto his seat. The elections, if fought alone by JD(U), would have suffered the consequences of incumbency. People, the world over, are pretty impatient.
Call it the fight to survive or ‘masterstroke’, the mahagatbandhan proved to be necessary. The ‘Grand Alliance’ or the ‘Gatbandhan’ helped seal a victory for him.
Notwithstanding the corruption charges, Lalu Prasad’s RJD commands a sizeable loyal vote bank among Yadavs and Muslims. And even though Congress hasn’t been quite the favorite in many of the Indian States, let alone Bihar, the BJP-fearing population still sides with the grand old party. And the calculations proved right. Nitish as the face of the Gatbandhan, an anti-BJP front, and Voila! Victory. Let’s leave the argument of whether Nitish would have won or not, had it not been for the alliance, for later.
Now, there will be people who loved Nitish when he was with BJP, hated when he went against and have started loving him since he’s back with them. Of course, the section which hated him for being with BJP, started loving him briefly and now would be back to square 1. Do you fall in any of these two categories and are trying to reason as to which side you’re on?
Nitish is a clever politician. Has always been, will always be. They don’t refer him as Chanakya for no reason. I won’t be surprised if he breaks away from BJP once more. And why should we single out Nitish? How is Mayawati, the supposed Dalit leader, any different? She was one of those who advocated for Modi after 2002! But hey, political-alliance-memory is short-lived and almost everyone has backtracked their views. Leave aside their views on policies and reforms, views of politicians about another change as frequently as the next season. There are no permanent Bandhans here.
Now, let me now go back to the vote for Mahagatbhandhan. Was that vote against BJP or not? If yes, then do you think this new combination is like going against people’s original vote?
Oh, don’t look for my views on this. It doesn’t matter. What matters is how you perceive it. My political predictions rely more on what people should be ideally doing rather than they actually do. Hence, mostly wrong.
If a good marketing campaign appears to change the perception of Yogi Adityanath, which even includes his Kurta and his barber, then anything can be done! Our media works over time if propaganda comes with corporate piggy banks like cherries on top.
Regional party-dominance is the only reason that BJP has not been able to crack many of the states. Up until now, at least.
Of course, they’re pretty determined to make that happen. If you want to know which states are their focus, all you need to do is keep an eye on ‘riots’ being covered by mainstream media. Ring a few bells?