Bihar’s ‘vocal for local or…’ test

Bihar’s ‘vocal for local or…’ test

Starting today, Bihar steps out to test the ‘Vocal for local’ model that has been pitched so far outside the electoral context. In the process, the state will also choose its next government.

With chief minister Nitish Kumar administration reportedly facing the drag of anti-incumbency, BJP seems to have decided to maintain more than just social distancing with its ruling ally Janata Dal (United).

Going by NDA posters dotting Bihar’s skylines, it’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom the voter should be voting for. Except, of course, the PM can’t be CM. Which leaves the Opposition branding local boy, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav as the challenger.

Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. For NDA, building a hotline with the Modi government in Patna is the USP, especially with unemployment and underemployment now a live wire electoral issue among post-lockdown-returned migrants to the state.

While the desire for an alternative to Kumar may be palpable, to have someone smacking of the ancien Lalu-Rabri régime — with its ‘legacy issues’ of corruption, and absence of development and governance — could be a gamble.

Which is why on his part, Tejashwi has been maintaining social distancing of his own from his (literally) parent party — so that he doesn’t end up ‘doing an Akhilesh Yadav’. Of course, ‘local’ or ‘national’ are just perceived pipelines for better delivery of what Bihar needs: development, governance, and law and order.

Unlike in the past, Bihar’s voters are no longer presented with the false binary of communal harmony and lack of development, or communal polarisation and progress. And, over the next couple of weeks, Bihar’s voters know that, as they decide the outcome of the election two weeks from today