Social issues, daily requirements weigh upon poll issues in Bihar as Rahul Gandhi's 'vote chori' fades on ground

New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS) In September, soon after the culmination of the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar, the leader of the Mahagathbandhan’s principal ally, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav had taken a solo journey across some districts considered crucial for his party in the Assembly elections.

That solo five-day tour was intended to independently gauge the voters’ mood in 10 of the state’s 38 districts where the RJD has been gaining influence, or successfully holding its ground since 2010.

Other Mahagathbandhan constituents, meanwhile, took to convening their own meetings and attending to poll-related tasks like selection of candidates and chalking out a poll strategy.

Since then, the euphoria over “vote chori” has taken a back seat, while good administration, welfare schemes, and the sundry political pecking came to the front.

Tejashwi Yadav’s solo foray into constituencies that held promises for his party was an attempt at feeling the pulse of the people while projecting him as a serious contender for the Chief Minister’s post, insist some of his followers.

Some say that the RJD de facto chief was convinced that only raising the “vote chori” slogan was not going to earn a mandate, people wanted more.

Additionally, the slogan was being identified more with the Congress and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

Then came the day when the Election Commission released the outcome of its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral list end-September, where the final rolls included nearly 7.42 crore electors.

When LoP Rahul Gandhi led the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar with his Mahagathbandhan allies, they had claimed that SIR was aimed at eliminating a massive number of voters – purportedly those from a certain religion, and others supporting the Congress and its allies.

During the process, it was claimed that some 68 lakh names were deleted from the voters' list, which could allegedly end into more. However, in the end, out of about 65 lakh voters removed from the draft list, more than 21.5 lakh names were added to it after the claims and objections period.

Even then, any person could still apply for inclusion of her or his name in the electoral roll, by submitting an application up to 10 days before the last date for filing nominations for election.

The last date for filing nominations, after the poll body announced the schedule for Bihar Assembly election, were October 17 and 20, for the two phases of polls, respectively.

After the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra', much of the argument shifted into demands for probes, evidence and judicial-administrative review rather than sustained mass mobilisation, giving institutional processes time to play out and reducing the space for continuous public agitation.

Meanwhile, through this time – between September 1 and October 29 – the Congress LoP himself was absent from the hustings. Some party leaders justified this absence due to festivals like Diwali and Chhath Puja.

Even if LoP Gandhi did decide to hold his poll campaigns till end-October, he did not even use this time to visit Congress offices or poll-centres, just to boost the morale of his party members.

Neither did he try to smoothen their feathers when they were ruffled by the omission of some names from the Congress list of candidates, nor did he indulge in seat-sharing negotiations with allies even though some regional leaders wanted the party to be allotted more seats.

The Congress High Command rather sent its “emissaries” to take care of these. The result was that parties like the RJD and the Left dominated the talks, with their past results used as a convincing tool.

Incidentally, the Mahagathbandhan constituents have throughout been critical of the Congress’ performance in the 2020 Assembly elections.

--IANS

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