As expected, the ruling Janata Dal (United) has been completely wiped out in Bihar. The party won only two seats against 20 in 2009 when it contested in alliance with the BJP—the latter won 12.
The only debating point left in Bihar is whether Verdict 2014 was more against chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has since resigned, or against the Congress party or its leaders like Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and for that matter Rahul Gandhi.
As Rahul was not a big factor in Bihar and his party managed to retain two seats—as in the last time—voter anger seems to have been directed more against Nitish Kumar than him.
While the upper castes and Paswans (Dussadhs) felt cheated by Nitish’s move to empower the Extremely Backward Castes and Mahadalits, the last two also deserted him when the Narendra Modi juggernaut entered Bihar and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate projected himself as an OBC.
The results have raised a pertinent question: will Janata Dal (United)
regain its lost ground by the next Assembly election in 2015 or will it return to 1995 Assembly election level when, its earlier version the Samata Party, just managed to win seven seats in the House strength of 324 then.
This election has also indicated that regional leaders like Lalu and Nitish are losing sheen. Lalu’s charisma failed to attract voters or he failed to reinvent himself. Even MY (Muslim Yadav) is not a formidable social alliance anymore.
A large number of youth felt hope in the leadership of Narendra Modi as the state has a large number of unemployed youths.
Bihar
● Secularism was not an issue in the election
● Lalu is not acceptable after being out of power for last couple of years
● Muslim polarisation helped BJP to polarise Hindus in a big way
● Mandal phenomenon is almost over
● Modi motivated young voters.
● Move to polarise Muslim voters proved counterproductive.
● BJP got support of new social segment EBC.