Sop Opera

Nitish Kumar is hoping freebies will translate into votes, but he faces a dual challenge—voter list revision debate and coalition drama

- BY PRATUL SHARMA

In Bihar, politics has always been a performance theatre.

For two decades, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been its central protagonist. Going by the spate of announcements he has made ahead of the assembly polls, it seems that he has no plans of sharing the limelight with anyone else. And, he has taken a leaf out of the Central government's political playbook by coopting the very plank the opposition hoped to campaign on. Last April, the Centre, after months of dithering, made a surprise announcement to conduct caste census along with the decennial census, effectively taking away the opposition’s, particularly the Congress's, potent and most saleable campaign slogan.

And so, the Nitish government has unveiled a series of pre-poll sops—from free electricity to 1.67 crore households, 33 per cent reservation for Bihari women in government jobs, increased social security pensions, free housing for the poor, one crore promised jobs and free bus rides for women. Many of these are similar to the post-poll promises of opposition parties.

While Bihar’s politics has always centred around caste, sops hold sway in wooing the aspirational voter. Take, for instance, the free power dole, which has helped parties like the AAP win elections in other states. Of the 1.86 crore domestic power consumers in Bihar, 1.67 crore consume up to 125 units per month. The scheme will be rolled out from August 1, nearly three months ahead of the polls. That means 90 per cent of the households will have ‘zero bills’ for at least three billing cycles before they cast their votes. Many view this as a sharp counter to Tejashwi Yadav’s offer to give 200 units free if voted to power. RJD’s Tejashwi is the prime contender for the chief minister's post.