Why ₹10K or women vote don’t tell the full story of NDA’s dramatic win

Voters refrained from Tejashwi’s stand on caste and family

- VANDITA MISHRA

THE STRONG “BADLAV" or change vote that made itself seen and heard on the Bihar ground in this election campaign was addressed overwhelmingly to the 20-year-old incumbent.Be it on corruption or price rise, unemployment or afsarshahi (rule of the bureaucrat), the wayward policy of prohibition, or most of all, the missing “factory” responsible for the unstanched “palayan” or migration from the state, voters said they wanted better and more — from nine-time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, not from his challengers.

To understand the why of the outcome, it may be necessary, first, to say what it isn’t.

An outsized section of punditry attributes the NDA victory to the election-eve transfer of ₹10,000/- to women under the Mahila Rojgar Yojana, a first instalment in a scheme that aims to promote female entrepreneurship. While the cash transfer only days before the election was problematic, pointing to the need for stricter norms and protocols on last-minute offers made by ruling parties, it may not quite be the election-winner it is painted to be.