Since the death of Sushant Singh Rajput almost every political party in north India has been trying to milk the issue for political gains especially prior to Bihar polls. The parties have harped on the tirade against one another in the backdrop of the SSR case before the state elections in Bihar. Sanjay Nirupam, former president of Mumbai regional congress committee, and congress campaigner (from Maharashtra) for Bihar polls commented in an interview that the underemployment and underdevelopment are the two major factors that put questions in front of Nitish Kumar. Nirupam added in his observations that Nitish Kumar had come to power promising change and development but he has done nothing in the past 15 years.

Sanjay Nirupam further added that the people of Bihar really want a change this time and that the poor man was affected the most during the Coronavirus-pandemic-induced lockdown period. The Bihar government was most apathetic, as observed by Nirupam, towards them.  Hence, they are hurt, especially the migrants, who are upset with both Nitish Kumar and the regime at the centre. With the train-services completely halted, the reverse-migration was highly adverse for the migrant workers from Bihar, many of whom died on their way back home on roads. Nirupam further stated that the returning migrants from Bihar were not even accepted to take shelter anywhere because of the fear of contracting the Coronavirus.

Sanjay went on to state that neither the centre nor the Bihar government did much for them, hence their pain will surely come out in the form of votes against BJP and Nitish.  The migrants would vote against those in power. The BJP and Nitish will certainly face the brunt of this as there is a wave of seething anger that is waiting for the right time to be expressed. Nirupam added that this time Modi-factor would not matter, as it will not protect Nitish Kumar from the rage of the migrant workers, because this is a state election. This is the first election in post-covid time and the voters will remember his/her past 6 months which gave a lot of pain in his/her existential struggle. Sanjay further added that the economic front is very disappointing on an overall scale which would add to the impact on the voting pattern.

He further elaborated that this election is going to be tough for every political party which will participate and mainly for BJP due to Modi’s lockdown policies and his carelessness in handling the migrant workers’ issues. Hence, Nitish Kumar will not get the protection in the name of BJP. Nirupam further added that all know that Nitish came to power on the promise of development but under his governance, Bihar’s per capita GDP has only reduced and as a result became the lowest in the country. The unemployment rate has risen as even now the migrations have not stopped indicating a major failure of the current government of Bihar.

Sanjay added that in the post-covid induced lockdown period, there has been continuing reverse migration with people coming back to Bihar, while the state government reacted most irresponsibly.  In fact, the Nitish government did not want people to come back, which was symbolized when neither the centre nor the state government took any steps to restart the train services. This caused the migrants to be left on their own. Subsequently, people were forced to walk for days, take auto, or cycle to reach back homes. Nirupam further commented that the Bihar government had the worst record when it came to helping migrants.

Sanjay in one of his concluding remarks added that the congress is a party with an internal democracy and that it has tied up with RJD, as the number two party, for the Bihar polls using the issues of underdevelopment and underemployment. He further added that the confusion created by the nature of the alliance structure between the LJP, BJP and the JD(U),  in which  LJP ‘s Chirag claims that he is the hanuman for Modi, along with the anger of the migrants will give a serious blow to the JD(U), as the voters seek clarity.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.