Updated: November 5, 2020 7:11:30 am
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addresses an election rally for the Bihar Assembly elections, in Madhubani district, on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 (PTI).
One of the many Modi-style RJD campaign posters bears an image of Tejashwi Yadav and this appeal: “Mujhse kahiye… main sunoonga, main karoonga (Talk to me… I will listen, I will act).”
But if you travel in Bihar, it seems that the voter seeking change is looking for an “Arvind Kejriwal type” option, a “teesri vikalp”, a (third) alternative with a clean slate.
Tejashwi, the candidate with a past, will have to overcome the doubts of this voter to speak with him and listen to him outside the Muslim-Yadav base of the RJD.
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From Sasaram in the south to Darbhanga in the north, there are visible signs of consolidation in the core of MY base of the RJD. Among the Yadavs, many point to the dazzling image of this contest: A lonely Tejashwi against all: Modi plus Nitish plus Yogi plus Fadnavis plus a host of BJP central ministers and star activists.
“Whatever the outcome, it has made the BJP sweat,” says an RJD strategist at Lalu’s Patna residence, where the picturesque terrace where Lalu preferred to hold an informal and imperious court lies abandoned, a bland office complex. behind him, the new center of activity.
In Muslim towns, Nitish is heard bitterly described as “Paltu Ram”, the leader who returned to Modi-BJP.
At Mohalla Bagh Bhai Khan, which had become a site for an anti-AAC dharna in Sasaram earlier this year, Sadar Alam says, with more nostalgia than bitterness, “Inki udaan thi, ab Modi ji ki jholi mein (Nitish has interrupted its own flight, landed in the Modi fold) ”.
But if the RJD is once again a vivid presence in its MY base, the desire for change in the non-Yadav, non-Muslim voter must face something more powerful: voters’ fear of a previous RJD regime.
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RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addresses a meeting during an election meeting in Raghopur. (PTI photo)
Here it is not enough for Tejashwi to strike a new pose. That for the first time, the RJD is making a serious effort to reformulate itself, to become the party “from A to Z”, not just “MI”, distributing tickets to many more caste groups. Or that their slogans promise caste-neutral “economic justice.” Or that Tejashwi has promised to sign in “10 lakh jobs” with the first flourish as prime minister.
Among the higher castes, the vivid specters of the “jungle raj” still abound: PM Modi invokes them in his speeches and so does Nitish Kumar. They play with memories and stories from the kidnapping industry, the flight of professionals from Bihar, the reluctance to go out after dark or return home from the station after arriving on a night train.
But it is lingering fears of a return to “Lalu raj” at the lower end of the caste spectrum, a Nitish stronghold that seems more vulnerable in this election than the higher castes, that may become Tejashwi’s main obstacle.
Here, among the non-Yadav CBOs, the EBCs and the Mahadalits, Lalu is a two-faced figure: the messiah who gave them a “voice”, taught them to speak and vote for themselves, but also the leader who ended up presiding. Yadav’s rebellion.
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RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav with party deputy Manoj Jha and others publish the party manifesto ‘Prann Hamara’, ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, at the party office in Patna. (PTI)
“Jungle raj” may be a higher caste label, but in EBC and Mahadalit bastis and tolas, speaking of “zyaadti (excesses)”, “dhaandhli (manipulation)” and “gundai (vandalism)” of an earlier time does not but se faded.
“Aatank ka raj ho jaata hai (becomes a kingdom of fear), Yadav ki zabardasti (Yadav’s right of way),” says Lakshmi Sahani, a farmer belonging to the Mallah group (EBC), in Salaha village, Muzaffarpur district. “FIR hoga hi nahin, you couldn’t even register a crime. Abhi kam se kam kanoon ka raj hai (at least now there is the rule of law) ”. Sahani is willing to consider the possibility that the son is different from the father. But, he says, the Yadavs next door haven’t changed. “They will feel emboldened,” he says.
In Jamunapur village in Patna district, Ashok Paswan says: “Dalit jitaya tha Lalu ji ko (It was the Dalits who pushed for Lalu’s victory), but he was oppressed. How can we forget? If Tejashwi wins, the Yadavs will say, this is my government … Our houses, our land, nothing will be safe … “
Among the Yadavs, there is a rejection of these specters. In the Sakkadi village of Ara, Santosh Kumar Rai, a merchant, says: “Just as a lot has been invested in painting Rahul Gandhi as ‘pappu’, there is an investment in smearing Lalu … Is the opposition alone doing wrong, why never? Any raids on someone who supports the BJP? Tejashwi is young, he says, and has time to make and correct mistakes.
And in Muzaffarpur, RJD state spokesman Iqbal Mohammad Sami asks, “How many times will they say ‘jungle raj’? People have already punished us for that, it is a spent card ”. In the RJD war room in Patna, the hope is: “Agar pyaar nahin toh nafrat bhi nahi karte (they may not love him, but they don’t hate Tejashwi).”
Brand Tejashwi must overcome fear of another kind in the poorer Dalit and EBC groups. Here, many of those who have been affected by subsidies and government schemes, hardly, but for the first time, fear that they will be invisible again.
“Nitish has already reached us, Tejashwi will take time to get everywhere,” says Vinesh Manjhi in Narauli Dih village in Muzaffarpur. There is a difference, says Vipin Kumar, between “Jo pahuncha hua hai aur jo pahunchne wala hai.”
Last but not least, candidate Tejashwi must persuade another voter that he does not want to go back to the past.
“Jhijhak toota hai (I don’t doubt anymore), 50% from arakashan mila hai (women have 50% reserve in jobs and panchayats),” says Sushma Kumari in Narauli village in Muzaffarpur.
Sushma’s husband, a school teacher, is determined to vote against Nitish this time. That will not change your vote, he says. And he laughs: “Nitish ji ghar todne ka kaam kar rahe hain.”
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