New Delhi: India’s ruling party and its allies are battling hard in the state of Bihar, where the country’s first major election since the coronavirus struck has become a referendum on the performance of the government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition partners were behind in Bihar’s 243-member assembly polls by Tuesday, according to exit polls. Election results were expected by noon local time on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP leader, is popular at the national level. But the last 12 major state elections will be the 10th loss for his party, potentially paving the way for his government’s aggressive Hindu nationalist agenda.
“As the BJP faces more and more regional shocks, India’s federal system becomes more hostile than cooperative,” said Giles Verniers, a professor of political science at Ashok University near New Delhi.
Bihar is a weak state where most people make a living in agriculture, forestry and fishing, Shri Modi’s party formed an alliance with the present Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal or the People’s Party.
The grand coalition is clinging to the achievements of the national BJP, such as the recent Supreme Court decision, which gives Hindus the right to build a temple on the site of a mosque destroyed by Hindu rioters a decade ago. Shri Modi laid the foundation stone for the temple at Ayodhya in August Gust.
Mr. Kumar’s challenger, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, 311, of the Rashtriya Janata Dal or Rashtriya People’s Party, focused on the issue of giving special importance to Biharis: the lack of jobs for the youth. In Bihar, the youth unemployment rate in 2018 and 2019 was around 31 per cent as compared to 17 per cent across the country.
Mr. Yadav was able to capture the imagination of mainly young voters with a determination to create one million new jobs. Exit polls strongly support Mr. Yadav’s coalition, which includes India’s main opposition Congress party.
The BJP-led coalition had difficulty in meeting Mr Yadav’s appeal. In reference to the rule of his parents in Bihar, the Prime Minister has placed Shri Yadav as “Jungle Raj Ke Yuvraj” or the prince of the ungodly age.
Mr. Yadav’s father, Lalu Prasad, who served two terms starting in 1990, has been in and out of jail for years on corruption charges. He is currently lodged in a hospital in Ranchi, a neighboring city in the state of Jharkhand. He made his wife Rabari Devi the Chief Minister in 1997, when an investigation into embezzlement of public funds was underway. She remained in power until 2005.
The election also stands as a barometer of the state government’s public opinion on controlling the epidemic, Mr Verniers said. Experts estimate that the economic downturn caused by the epidemic and the downturn caused earlier this year, which led to the return of millions of lions, led to youth unemployment in the state reaching over 40 per cent.
“There is a widespread perception that the Bihar government’s efforts to reduce the impact of the epidemic on unskilled workers have been less than adequate,” he said.
Bihar, where health care is limited, has been particularly plagued by epidemics, as in March Shri Modi ordered the lockdown to send foreign workers back to their ancestral villages.
Those who had migrated to the cities of greater India were often forced to return home on foot as transport was suspended. Varun Agarwal, founder of Mumbai-based advocacy group India Migration Now, said others who plan to leave for seasonal work also do not miss the opportunity to earn an income.
There is a long-term silence disaster for those who cannot migrate to Bihar, ”Mr Agarwal said.
India’s new virus infection has dropped significantly to about 98,000 new cases a day in recent weeks since September. But experts warn that cold weather, toxic air pollution caused by burning of paddy fields are freeing them from stone, and the Hindu festival of Diwali this month could bring a resurgence in cases.
