2015-11-08

1. Nitish Kumar’s popularity

Perhaps the most decisive factor for the Grand Alliance was Nitish Kumar’s popularity among Bihar voters. Nitish Kumar emerged as the most popular chief ministerial candidate in almost all the surveys. The anti-incumbency factor has rarely ever been enough to win an election and voters have started rewarding a performing CM at a pan-India level. When Narendra Modi was Gujarat CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan was Madhya Pradesh CM, Raman Singh was Chhattisgarh CM and Navin Patnaik was Odisha CM, all of them won their state elections on their individual popularity, even though their parties had mixed results in the Lok Sabha polls. By winning Bihar for the third time, Nitish has proved that a popular and performing CM can win state elections and buck the national trend.

2. Nitish-Lalu alliance

When Nitish Kumar agreed to join hands with Lalu Prasad, he faced a lot of criticism for ignoring the RJD chief’s corruption taint. Lalu, it was said, would be a liability on the Mahagathbandhan. However, as it turns out, the decision to contest together turned out to be a masterstroke as it prevented division of votes against the BJP. Turning the tables on his critics, Lalu Prasad emerged as the biggest winner in these elections bagging the maximum number of seats. The spectacular performance of Grand Alliance is driven to a large extent by Lalu Prasad’s great comeback in the state. Even the Congress, which has had a dreadful run after the Lok Sabha elections, fared better than expected in Bihar and did not pull down the alliance.

3. Lalu’s charisma

Lalu Prasad, the wily politician who ruled Bihar for 15 years, emerged as the star campaigner for the Grand Alliance with his unique style of campaigning. He countered the top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on all controversial issues raised during the campaigning. Lalu, who crafted the winning MY (Muslim-Yadav) combination to rule the state, managed to hold together his support base and ensured that they voted for the Mahagathbandhan candidates.

4. The Prashant Kishor factor

He was Narendra Modi’s master strategist during the 2012 assembly polls in Gujarat and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But, in this election, this silent strategist was a part of Nitish Kumar’s camp. 37-year-old Prashant Kishor, the man with the Midas touch, helped craft Nitish Kumar’s campaign strategy in Bihar. Kishor, who conceptualised and implemented Modi’s popular ‘chai pe charcha’ initiative, substituted it with ‘parcha pe charcha’ (discussion over pamphlets) under which Nitish’s poll managers sought feedbak from people on the state government’s performance over the past decade. Kishor’s team also devised the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ (knock on every door) that helped the party establish a personal connect with the masses.

5. Partners let BJP down

The BJP was let down by all its three partners — the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of former CM Jitan Manjhi, and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party of Union minister Upendra Kushwaha — in a big way. Out of the 83 seats that they together contested in Bihar, they could manage to win only five. The BJP overestimated Manjhi, who lost one of the two seats he contested. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won only two out of 40 seats while Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) won two out of 23 seats it contested.

6. State vs Lok Sabha

Voters are increasingly showing a tendency to differentiate between different kinds of elections. They have started electing their representatives as per the horses-for-courses principle. This was clearly evident during the Delhi assembly elections. While the BJP won all seven seats during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it got an unexpected and unprecedented drubbing in the 2015 assembly polls and was able to win only three out of seventy seats. A general refrain among Delhi voters was that they preferred Narendra Modi as the PM but Arvind Kejriwal as the CM. Taking a cue from the Delhi elections, Nitish Kumar’s communications team under Prashant Kishore, who had advised PM Modi during the Lok Sabha polls but had joined hands with the Bihar CM for the assembly elections, was able to exploit this PM-CM dichotomy and brilliantly pegged it as a “Bihari vs Bahari” fight. Not surprisingly, Bihar showed greater preference for a Bihari.

7. The RSS chief’s quota remark

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment on the need to have a rethink of caste-based reservation came at the most inopportune moment for the BJP. Bihar has always been the validating state for the saying “Indians don’t cast their vote but vote their caste”. Bhagwat’s remark on reservations was like a “free hit” for the Grand Alliance, with RJD chief Lalu Prasad calling it a forward vs backward contest. Though the BJP repeatedly assured the people of Bihar that it would name an OBC as their CM after the elections, the damage had already been done.

8. VK Singh ‘dog’ remark on dalit deaths

Union minister V K Singh’s ill-phrased comment that the government cannot be held responsible if a stone is thrown at a dog – in the context of the murder of two dalit children in Faridabad – gave another chance to the Grand Alliance to consolidate its hold over the dalit votes. Both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad quickly jumped in to criticize Singh. “Aghast at the senseless comment made by some BJP leaders, including the Union minister, on tragic Dalit killings in Haryana,” Nitish Kumar said in a tweet.

9. A trust deficit between Muslims and the BJP

There has always been a trust deficit between Muslims and the BJP. There are 15% Muslims in Bihar and they were always going to be a challenge for the BJP. The division of Muslim votes was a big plus for the BJP during the 2014 general elections. However, the coming together of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar helped consolidate the Muslim vote and acted as a force-multiplier in the assembly elections. Moreover, incidents like the Dadri lynching and other rows over beef, may have further motivated Muslims to vote against the BJP.

10. The absence of BJP’s local leadership

There was a time when state leaders used to be the BJP’s greatest strength. Modi in Gujarat, Shivraj in Madhya Pradesh, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan – they all were the envy of the Congress. But with the ascendance of Modi as the PM, a centralising tendency has crept into the BJP and state leaders have been marginalized. In some places, their participation became merely perfunctory. In a close contest like Bihar, a disinterested local leadership was always going to be a big minus for the BJP.

11. Asaduddin Owaisi’s no-show

Asaduddin Owaisi with his All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) was supposed to be the X-factor in the Bihar elections. Overall, his entry was being counted as a plus for the BJP. But as the elections progressed, the Grand Alliance managed to portray Owaisi as a vote-spoiler and he failed to make any impact.

12.The law of diminishing returns catches up with PM Modi

PM Modi continues to be the most popular leader in the country. But the BJP can’t hope to win every election in his name. When Modi was campaigning in the 2014 general elections, he had a formidable record as the Gujarat CM and that attracted voters. But, as the PM, he has to answer for a number of issues, like the sudden spiral in pulses’ prices. It is to Modi’s credit that he is still able to pull a large crowd at his rallies but the law of diminishing returns is catching up with him.

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