Bihar polls months away but Lalu, Nitish have set stage for battle — online and offline

A battle of hoardings between ruling JD(U) and principal opposition RJD has begun in Patna, with the rivalry also playing out in the virtual world.

File photo | Lalu Prasad Yadav with Nitish Kumar | YouTube

New Delhi: The high-profile Bihar assembly elections are at least eight months away but the first salvos have already been fired in the state. 

A battle of hoardings between the ruling JD(U) and the principal opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has begun in Patna, with the rivalry also playing out in the virtual world.   

The latest in the one-upmanship came when RJD supremo and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav Sunday tweeted that one of the ruling parties in Bihar was a “girgitia” (chameleon, a cryptic reference to the RJD) while the other was a “khatpatia” (one who looks for confrontation, read the BJP) and declared that their rule was “ghatia” (bad).  

एक गिरगिटिया दूसरा खिट्टपिट्टिया
कुल जोड़ मिला के शासन घटिया #2020_हटाओ_नीतीश

— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) January 5, 2020

He had earlier coined the slogan, Do Hazar Bees, Hatao Nitish (Finish Nitish in 2020), a reference to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, tweeting it out Saturday. 

दो हज़ार बीस
हटाओ नीतीश

— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) January 4, 2020

The JD(U) has so far only responded with ‘2020 Phir Sey Nitish (It will be Nitish again in 2020), and party leaders told ThePrint that they are unperturbed by the RJD’s broadsides. 

बिहार में नहीं होने देंगे भ्रष्टाचारियों का बेड़ा पार
इसलिए तो बिहार को चाहिए नीतीश कुमार

2020 में फिर से नीतीश@ANI @Jduonline

— Dr. Ashok Choudhary (@AshokChoudhaary) January 5, 2020

“There is no alternative to Nitish and everybody knows this. Laluji’s slogans are meaningless,” JD(U) minister Ashok Choudhary told ThePrint. 

Rivalry on the streets

The intense battle was sparked by a poster appearing outside the JD(U) office in Patna on 3 January. It demanded that the RJD provide an account of the 15 years it was in power in Bihar. One half of the poster showed broken roads, no power and criminals ruling the state while the other the “infrastructure and rule of law” under the Nitish government. 

The RJD hit back with a hoarding of its own, hinting that the assembly polls will be a battle between Gareebo Ka Raj (rule of the poor), referring to its tenure, and the rule of the criminals. “It’s good that the battle has begun. But it will not be fought through posters,” said RJD state president Jagdanand Singh. “Let there be a debate. As far as Nitish Kumar’s claim on governance is concerned, the Niti Ayog report is enough to bust it as it has ranked Bihar fourth from the bottom.” 

Nitish himself has not shied away from politicking. On 1 January, he joked to the media that Lalu Prasad had personally told him that he had left ‘ghosts’ at Iney Marg, the official residence of the Bihar chief minister that Lalu and Rabri vacated in 2006. 

The RJD reacted, saying Nitish had lost confidence in himself and was resorting to superstition. “The people of Bihar will take out the ghost of Nitish Kumar this election. He is trying to divert the attention from real issues such unemployment. law and order, scams and a collapsed education system by talking about ghosts,” read a tweet on Lalu’s Twitter handle. 

Bitterness as hope for alliance fades

The bitterness between the RJD and the JD(U) has set it as it has become clear that Nitish Kumar will remain with the NDA. The RJD had been treating the chief minister with kid gloves in the hope he would finally walk out of the NDA. But the hopes have now faded. 

For one, the chief minister’s troubles with ally BJP appear to have been settled. This, after BJP president Amit Shah clarified that not only will the NDA be led by Nitish Kumar in the assembly polls, he will also be the alliance’s CM candidate.   

The RJD now knows if it hopes to perform in the 2020 assembly polls, it has to attack Nitish Kumar as he does make a difference. 

The RJD’s alliances with a number of smaller players such as the RLSP, HAM and Mukesh Sahani have failed while the Congress does not have a support base in the state. 

A RJD leader said the party has now realised it must take on the NDA, particularly Nitish, to better its prospects in the elections. The fact that Lalu Prasad, currently in judicial custody in Ranchi, may still not be there during the crucial phase of the polls is also weighing on the party.