From RJD’s weak narrative to MGB's failure to expand base

FIVE YEARS AFTER falling just 12 seats short of a simple majority in Bihar, the Opposition Mahagathbandhan was at the receiving end of an NDA sweep, with its two biggest constituents, the RJD and the Congress, collapsing spectacularly.While the RJD, the singlelargest party, ended up with only 19 seats,down from 75 in 2020, the Congress was struggling to reach double digits.

- SANTOSH SINGH & MANOJ CG

The RJD and its leader Tejashwi Yadav did not do too well this time because of multiple factors:

Weak ‘laabharthi’ narrative

In the run-up to the polls, Tejashwi Yadav raised questions about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s health, saying the NDA government was in an “achet (unconscious)” stateand labelled it “khatara (rickety)”. However, the RJD leader who had shaken the NDAwith his 10 lakh jobs narrative in 2020 did not have anything fresh to offer in terms of a vision, except the promise ofa government job for each family, which did not find many takers.

His Mai Bahin Maan Yojana, promising ~2,500 to woman beneficiaries, looked somewhat double, but the NDA successfully countered it with the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, in which eligible women entrepreneurs received %10,000as the first instalment, along with an additional financial support of €2 lakh available within six months based on the performance of the business. Now famous as the “dashazari” scheme, it helped Nitish Kumar rally his core constituency of “mahila’ voters and swept away Tejashwi’s narrative.

Chirag Paswan