A disease such as the coronavirus gives an advantage to ruling parties because the movement of challengers is circumscribed but members and...
A disease such as the coronavirus gives an advantage to ruling parties because the movement of challengers is circumscribed but members and candidates of those in power have the government machinery on their side. Bihar has undergone an agonising few months: it’s the state to which many of the migrants returned home after losing work and making exhausting journeys, it has one of the worst public health-care systems in the country unable to cope with much, let alone a new virus, and now the northern districts of the state are facing terrible floods, worse than the usual cycle.
Discontent and desperation is growing and the incumbent regime of Nitish Kumar looks helpless. The sooner the elections in the state the better it is for him.
In normal times, people could be voting against the incumbent, which is the National Democratic Alliance of the Janata Dal (United), the Bharatiya Janata Party and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party. In North Bihar in particular, worst affected by floods and reverse migration, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Party has deeper roots although they have been unable to convert it to election victories after the incarceration of party president Lalu Prasad Yadav. Currently, his son and successor Tejashvi Yadav...
