“Wherever Hindu refugees settled after Partition, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJS) started to carry sway, whereas the Communists held sway wherever there have been factories and staff.” This phrase, well-liked within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, completely sums up Bihar’s politics.
If this meant Congress dominance within the state till 1990, barring two transient gaps in 1967-1972 and 1977-1980, it’s also why the BJP, which is contesting as many seats as its first-time ally JD(U) within the state, has struggled to realize pan-Bihar attraction regardless of being the nation’s largest celebration.
Though Narendra Modi has served as prime minister for 3 consecutive phrases, and neighboring Uttar Pradesh has been beneath the Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities beneath Yogi Adityanath since 2017, Bihar stays an unconquered frontier for the celebration.
Political analyst Prem Kumar Mani mentioned, “Throughout the Congress dominance, the state witnessed the rise of communists, socialists and BJS/BJP virtually concurrently. Nevertheless, the BJP did not turn out to be a pan-Bihari celebration. Over 20 years of dependence on Nitish speaks volumes: Shahabad (Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxar) and Magadh.” (Aurangabad, Gaya, Jehanabad, Alwar) The area is thought for its socialist and leftist actions. The BJP’s outcomes right here – it received 2 out of 21 seats within the 2020 meeting polls, however 0 seats in final 12 months’s Indian parliamentary elections – present it nonetheless has a mountain to climb. Whereas Nitish nonetheless holds sway within the Koshi belt (Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura), (RJD chief) Lalu Prasad maintains his core (Muslim/Yadav) base. Given this example, the Bharatiya Janata Get together nonetheless wants a companion to share state energy. ”
As soon as thought-about “politically untouchable”, the BJS (an earlier incarnation of the BJP) drew clean votes within the 1952 and 1957 meeting polls. The celebration first achieved success within the 1962 meeting polls, successful three seats within the 319-member Home: Siwan (Janardhan Tiwari), Mangal (Jagadambi Prasad Yadav) and Nawada (Grishanker Kesari). A robust orator, Yadav made a reputation for himself together with his sharp criticism of the Congress authorities led by Vinodanand Jha and KB Sahay.
However the BJS’s largest second got here in 1967, when the Congress misplaced energy in 9 states, together with Bihar, following socialist chief Ranmanohar Lohia’s anti-Congress motion. The BJS discovered area inside it as Mr. Lohia satisfied his colleagues that unity of the opposition was important to tackle the Congress. Later, Lohia and the then RSS chief MS Golwalkar got here collectively.
Thereafter, the Sanyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD) authorities was shaped with Mahamaya Prasad Sinha as Prime Minister and Karpoori Thakur as Deputy Prime Minister. Within the BJS, which received 26 seats, three leaders – Ramdev Mahato (Patna East), Vijay Kumar Mitra (Bhagalpur) and Rudra Pratap Sarangi (Saraikela, now in Jharkhand) obtained ministerial slots. CPI was additionally a part of the anti-Congress coalition.
Throughout the turbulent anti-Congress interval from 1967 to 1972, when Bihar had seven chief ministers, the BJS remained a weak however robust pressure. Within the 1969 interim polls, the BJS received 34 seats and in 1972 it received 25 seats.
After the JP motion, socialist stalwart Jayaprakash Narayan introduced collectively the BJS, Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Lok Dal, socialist organizations and others to kind the Janata Get together, which received 214 out of 325 seats within the 1977 meeting polls, paving the way in which for Karpoori Thakur to turn out to be CM. Prior to now, BJS veterans like Kailashpati Mishra and Thakur Prasad turned ministers.
The BJS, which emerged because the BJP within the 1980 polls, was relegated to a low place in three successive elections (1980: 21 seats, 1985: 16 seats, 1990: 30 seats) because the Congress regained the higher hand. It was then overshadowed by Lalu Prasad’s socialist rise from 1990 to 2000.
It was solely after forming an alliance with Nitish Kumar that the Bharatiya Janata Get together felt it might problem the RJD. In 2000, the NDA was invited to kind the federal government, though it didn’t have a majority. Nitish took oath with solely two ministers, Sushil Kumar Modi and Pashupati Kumar Paras. Nevertheless, as a consequence of lack of numbers, the federal government collapsed inside seven days, paving the way in which for Rabri Devi’s return as CM.
“Chief scarcity”
A piece of the BJP believes {that a} “scarcity” of leaders continues to constrain the celebration in Bihar, in contrast to earlier when it might rely Kailashpati Mishra, Thakur Prasad, Tarakant Jha, Govindacharya and Ashwini Kumar amongst its founding members.
Probably the most outstanding of those, Mishra, spent a lot of his time in Katihar, Zemanchal area, usually sleeping on the prepare station till celebration officers organized for him a small room.
In an earlier interview with this correspondent, late BJP chief and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi spoke about Govindacharya touring from village to village on a bicycle to counter allegations that the RSS was linked to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Recalling that ‘sanghi’ was as soon as a derogatory time period, PM Modi praised Govindacharya and Mishra for his or her tireless work in constructing the foundations of the Bharatiya Janata Get together.
BJP leaders declare that Kailashpati Mishra didn’t need Nitish to be projected because the face of the NDA. “Sushil Kumar Modi was our celebration’s finest. After him, now we have tried former deputy CMs like Tarakishore Prasad and Renu Devi and present deputy CMs like Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. We’re a mediocre celebration,” the celebration chief mentioned.
One other chief identified that the BJP had received solely 53 seats within the 2015 Bihar meeting elections, a 12 months after Mr. Modi’s 2014 splash election. “In 2020, though we received 74 seats towards JD(U)’s 43, we handed over the CM submit to Nitish. And now (Union Residence Minister) Amit Shah might not hesitate to call the NDA’s CM face, however Nitish will return as CM if his celebration wins 55-60 seats,” the celebration chief added.
