Whereas issues could also be a bit calmer on the home political entrance at current, Bihar is clearly an exception to this situation. The Election Fee (EC) has declared Bihar meeting elections in two phases on November 6 and 11 and declared November 14, which is Kids’s Day, as D-day with voting counting day.
It’s clear that the outcomes of the Bihar polls will have an effect on nationwide politics. Bihar will take management of parliamentary elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in 2026 and, extra importantly, in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab a yr later. Bihar additionally sends 40 MPs to Parliament, a quantity that’s essential for the ruling BJP, which lacks a majority on the central stage.
Equally vital, Bihar might exhibit the extent to which the Bharatiya Janata Get together has been capable of overcome the perceived setbacks suffered by the Pahalgam assault and ceasefire with Pakistan after Operation Sindoor.
November 14 may even reveal the influence of the ‘PK’ issue on the long run trajectory of Bihar’s politics. Ballot strategist-turned-politician and Jan Suraji Get together (JSP) founder Prashant Kishore’s prospects are comparatively sparse, which can function an indicator to gauge how prepared the state is for post-caste-cum-communal politics.
Bihar is arguably India’s most politically aware state and has set new traits prior to now. It was the Jayaprakash Narayan-led Bihar Motion that introduced concerning the ouster of the then highly effective Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1977 after the Emergency, resulting in the formation of the primary non-Congress authorities on the Heart (even when not for a full time period).
Bihar has turn into a testing floor for political empowerment of the numerically massive however unorganized EBC (Extraordinarily Backward Courses), a course of pushed by incumbent chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar. In an evolving democracy, the EBC has emerged because the ‘X-factor’ within the latest elections held throughout North India.
However in my view, essentially the most fascinating and far-reaching revelation of the Bihar polls stands out as the influence that ‘MMRY’ (Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana) has had on Bihar.
The significance of girls as a vote financial institution was established within the final three Bihar meeting elections since 2010, when the turnout of girls voters was larger than that of males voters. Will the ‘MMRY’ plan rolled out by Nitish Kumar be a recreation changer? Will ‘M’ (Mahila)’s affect assist counter the fatigue that has set in after 20 years of rule, the corruption allegations surrounding his administration, the ‘anti-incumbency’ in opposition to MLAs and above all of the deteriorating well being that has led some to dub him ‘Dhuobta Sithara’?
The MMRY scheme goals to supply Rs 10,000 to at least one girl in each eligible household as preliminary assist to begin an enterprise. Relying on the success of their efforts, extra help of as much as Rs 200,000 can be given to them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lately launched the scheme and transferred the primary installment of Rs 10,000 every to the financial institution accounts of seven.5 million ladies beneficiaries.
Mr. Nitish has clearly taken the concept of the Bharatiya Janata Get together/NDA authorities’s Ladies’s Financial Help Schemes (Ladri Behen Yojana in Madhya Pradesh and Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra), however has gone a step additional by placing more cash within the fingers of girls in order that they will begin their very own ventures.
These LBY plans performed a key function within the return of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh in 2023 and the Mahayuti in Maharashtra in 2024.
In conversations with a number of ladies in Maharashtra forward of the November 2024 meeting polls, I used to be struck by their response to such plans. “Our husbands can vote no matter they need. We are going to vote for Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena chief after which CM). He has stored cash in our fingers,” mentioned a number of ladies, principally belonging to Dalit and OBC teams, residing in a village in Aurangabad district. That they had already began small companies to extend their household’s earnings.
Equally, when queuing outdoors the Ram temple in Ayodhya in early 2024, a bunch of girls who had come from Madhya Pradesh to see the temple mentioned, “All of us assist Narendra Modi.” Nevertheless, their solely grievance was that Mr Modi ought to have as soon as once more appointed ‘Mama’ Shivraj Chouhan as Madhya Pradesh CM after his social gathering received the November 2023 meeting polls with Mr Chouhan because the Chief Minister. “It’s mother who has put the cash in our fingers,” they mentioned about Ladri Behen Yojana.
Ladies are maybe essentially the most bold group on this nation at the moment, and all political events are actively reaching out to them. Nitish Kumar, also called ‘Sushasan Babu’, was fast to sense the change within the floor stage in Bihar. Shortly after first taking energy in 2005, he launched a scheme to encourage women to attend faculty by giving them bicycles and uniforms, which elevated enrollment and decreased dropout charges. (These women are actually moms and are influencing their households’ selections.)
Later, in 2016, Nitish determined to implement a ban on alcohol within the state in response to ladies’s complaints about alcohol consumption and home violence. The transfer was controversial because it led to unlawful peddling of liquor, jailing of males and lack of income to the state, with Nitish being blamed. But it surely received him the approval of girls. So have been insurance policies to actively rent ladies, together with 50% in native authorities, 35% in authorities jobs, and 35% in police.
Throughout a latest journey, notably in rural areas, I requested younger ladies in every single place what they might need to be if given half the possibility. Their response was shocking: 7 out of 10 mentioned they needed to turn into a police officer. Really, that is not shocking. It is because police characterize the ability and freedom that ladies search.
Whereas different events in Bihar have additionally made guarantees to ladies within the upcoming polls, with RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav asserting the ‘My Bahin Maan Yojana’ which can give every poor and backward girl Rs 2,500 per thirty days, Nitish’s credibility with ladies voters stays excessive in comparison with his opponents.
The ‘M’ issue seems to be one of many the explanation why the BJP determined to take the NDA to the polls regardless of Nitish’s well being points. Even when the NDA wins, will probably be equally tough to oust him, as relying on the ballot outcomes, he could once more go to the opposition Mahagathbandhan camp to type a authorities.
If ladies voters assist Nitish Kumar’s return to Pataliputra Gadi, schemes like MMRY and its variants may very well be rolled out in different ballot states as properly. Placing cash in ladies’s fingers can solely assist ladies and their youngsters earn a greater life.
(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Specific, has lined the final 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the creator of ‘How Prime Ministers Determine’.)
