Express News Service
PATNA: The recent Bihar assembly elections were more meaningful than ever for the all parties in the state, including the NDA and the opposition.
A book titled JP to BJP- Bihar after Lalu and Nitish by Patna based senior journalist Santosh Singh has brought in a bunch of ‘less known’ political facts to the readers.
Singh, based in Patna, in a chapter of the book ‘The Churn-Bihar after Lalu and Nitish’ states that “The NDA had to also face the migration blues, and a not-so-great development index, beyond the basic ‘bijali, sadak and paani in the last three terms of Nitish Kumar as the Bihar CM”.
The book, written with lucid facts, has proved to be an instant hit in the political as well as academic circles of the state. But what lures the readers to buy this book is its objective narration depicting political profiles and personalities of Bihar. The book also talks about the young political figures, namely Chirag Paswan, Kanhaiya Kumar and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
Singh has stated that BJP has a compulsion to remain in political alliance with the JD-U but in the near future, BJP may dare to go alone with determination to have full political independence in Bihar.
As mentioned in the book, “For the BJP, alliance with Nitish may well be political compulsion. Bihar BJP is not daring enough. But it (BJP) wants to dare and has been waiting just for the right time”.
That means, BJP will never give second thought to take jump in the state independently.
The book elucidates well that Bihar politics is at the far end of the era of Jayaprakash Narayan’s scions, with Nitish Kumar as the last holding the stand of politics from the socialist camp.
“He (Nitish Kumar) looks good for a few more years, but the politics in the state in another ten years may have an altogether different templates and political proper nouns. Politics in Bihar is now entering an era that will make it bipolar. It is Saffron versus Socialists”, the book predicts.
The book broadly claims “Bihar has crossed over the Nitish Kumar phase. Nitish might decorate the chair but he may not hold on to it for a long time”.
It is a fact that no body honestly can deny that BJP has no leader parallel to Nitish Kumar to project as face to Chief Minister of the party in case it disassociates from the alliance. The BJP has majority of its leaders as well ministers, who feel privileged remaining ‘inaccessible’ to the both media and the common people.
The same situation, directly or indirectly, goes with JD-U with a majority of its ministers including national president RCP Singh and CM Nitish Kumar, who remain ‘inaccessible’ to the media and the people in general with a few exceptions.
But what JDU has an edge over the BJP is Nitish Kumar’s face-which carries a credit of ,indeed, transferring the Bihar from ‘backward’ to now somewhat ‘cleaned’ and ‘moving’ in development as a state as the leader heading the state since 2005 with the political alliance wit BJP.
Singh’s book reads “There can be three possibilities, BJP taking the centre–state with its aggressive brand of politics, Tejashwi cobbling a strong anti-BJP alliance, with the Congress and the left. Someone like Kanhaiya Kumar can become the fulcrum of a non-RJD and non-BJP alliance with the support of the Congress”.
The book also says that caste politics has slowly started losing importance in Bihar. But it can not be easily agreed upon as having seen the recent caste equations mainlined by all parties in ticket distributions to ministerial formations by NDA.
But, it has rightly been stated that, “Bihar is fast heading towards a BJP versus the rest of the political dispensation contest’. The book also says that Tejashwi, with his reserve of 20-22 per cent base, alone has a chance to give some resistance to the BJP, after Nitish Kumar is out of the race”.
By going through the books, it goes without saying that the book by a journalist on Bihar politics will certainly prove handy in giving ‘intelligent insight’ on the state politics.
Another senior journalist, Raj Kamal Jha, has said “To understand the India story today, any journey to and through Bihar is vital-it is both a pilgrimage and a reality check. This book is an invaluable compass for that journey”.
Indeed, this is the book that speaks about ‘Bihar’s politics’ from past to future as an unputable down one.