The battle was projected as the biggest battle since the 2014 mandate, globally and not only across India...The fight became interesting as first time in the history a PM was pitted against a CM, but it was brought to this point by none other than the NDA core committee, by directly involving PM Modi into the mud slinging. Never before has a PM became so involved in state elections that he stopped in Bihar between two foreign trips to promote his party. This was a sign of desperation.
The intelligence of voters of Bihar should not be questioned here as they were the same group of people who an year ago pushed JDU and RJD, not to forget Congress out of equation. What changed in the past 15 months that they had to vote negatively for BJP?
There was a clear disconnect between the local karyakartas and the Election Core Committee. The core committee which comprised of Amit Shah from Gujarat, Ananth Kumar from Karnataka, Kailash Vijayvargiya from MP, Arjun Munda from Jharkhand , who failed miserably in reading voter's minds.
This is evident from the terrible and sorry case of Baby Kumari from Bochahan who was given a ticket from BJP then shifted to LJP and was finally asked to step aside for Paswan's son-in-law, she had to fight as independent and won . This caused dissent deeply in party workers who swore for PM Modi just a year ago. Workers didn’t take the central command structure kindly. They resented not having access to senior leaders and were only able to reach them through call centers.
There was this confusion from day one within NDA for the face of the elections and for many a times the coalition was seen projecting Jitan Ram Manjhi not publicly. He was declared the face of the local body. Manjhi whose slippery grounds have been always recorded by the people of Bihar...Manjhi is the man who joined INC, then Janata Dal, then Rashtriya Janata Dal , then JDU and finally NDA...People of Bihar have never trusted him as Nitish Kumar was criticized heavily after he chose Manjhi to succeed him.
NDA knocked every door but remained mum on the question as who would become CM, which was asked by karyakartas at every possible election campaign discussion.Only posters of Amit Shah and Modi were highlighted everywhere, which started the 'Bahari vs Bihari' campaign and which immediately connected(hope this one too came from Prashant Kishor).People wanted a face and they could not provide one. Instead they brought Ajay devagan and Hema Malini to campaign which backfired miserably.
In 2010, Congress aimed for an ambitious 243 seats out of which they won only 4 seats; strike rate was as low as 1%. But this time around,Congress which was pitched to win not even one seat, pulled up its socks, and has won 27 out of 41 contested seats. This brings their strike rate to 65.8%.
Consider the strike rate of JD(U) in 2010 was 81.5%, and this year it managed to get 70% (the seats contested was less this time). For BJP the strike rate then was 89.2%, while this year it is paltry 33.3% (the seats being contested was less this time).
In the previous assembly elections, RJD won 22 of the 168 contested seats, thus bringing their strike rate to 13.10%. But this time, RJD broke all past records and got the most number of seats. Out of the 101 contested seats, they won 80. The strike rate is 79%, which shows that RJD performed extremely well as compared to the poor performance they put up in the last Assembly elections.
Statistical proof of Negative Voting.
I will not even comment about Prashant Kishor whose fallout with NDA has cost them definitely. The man is already globally in demand and presently influencing the Tanzanian government after changing the political discourse of our country for the past four years with some of the campaigns he mastered as 'Chai Pe Charcha', 'Abki Baar Modi Sarkar', 'Sabka saath Sabka Vikas', 'Parche pe charcha', 'Citizenas for Accountable Governance' and many more. the man is from Bihar and when it came to him he delivered.
Finally Lalu Prasad Yadav who is best at his game did what he does best. He dragged everyone down from the Development agenda around him.People were shocked to notice even Modi followed the suit by getting into Beef, and mahadalits and EBC and what not, 'Firecrackers in Pakistan' boomeranged completely. The whole election was campaigned at the center of Lalu Prasad Yadav and he benefited the most out of it.
The article won't be complete without the honorary mention of the statements by Mohan Bhagwat, Yogi Adityanath, Shakshi Maharaj, Sangeet Som and the BJP ally in Maharashtra the Shiv Sena.
Lastly,all of this will not serve as referendum for PM Modi as people don't remember things for too long.
Yes the results will be remembered for a long long time and so will be Nitish Kumar's statement 'Ek Bihari sab pe Bhaari'...
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