5 terms a CM? ‘Sushasan Babu’ Nitish retains hold on top seat

For the past two decades, the difference between being in government and opposition in Bihar has been Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal (United), and the support base he and his party have assiduously cultivated, women and people from the so-called extreme backward classes or EBCs. Whether it is along with the dominant OBCs (other backward classes) led by the Yadavs, or with the upper castes in what is popularly called a coalition of extremes, it is Kumar who decides who governs the state.

- Chetan Chauhan and Arun Kumar

A hoarding near Tara Mandal in Patna congratulating Nitish Kumar on the assembly election results.

(SANTOSH KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

For the past twenty years, it has been him.

The 2020 assembly elections were different. Sabotaged by the Lok Janshakti Party, which continued to be part of the larger NDA grouping at the centre, the JD(U) saw its tally in the assembly shrink to 43, its lowest since 2005. This time, it has won 85 seats at a strike rate of almost 85%, despite a muted campaign by Kumar himself, who is keeping indifferent health.

Still, partly on account of the spate of welfare schemes he announced ahead of the election -- many targeted at women -- and partly because of fears over what the NDA termed Jungle Raj (the RJD's rule between 1990 and 2005), and the good governance (Sushasan) his government had delivered, he remained front and centre of the NDA campaign.

On ground, there was a palpable undercurrent of support for Bihar’s ‘Sushashan Babu’. The higher turnout of women voters ~-- 8.8 percentage points more than men; 71.6% of women voted as compared to 62.8% of men -- is directly attributed to the appeal Kumar enjoys among women, and the 210,000 cash handout to 14.1 million women just ahead of the election.

Kumar's constituency is of his own making.

“If women have emerged as a big constituency favouring him despite the caste divide, it is a result of his government's consistent plans and policies since 2005,” says analyst Prof. NK Choudhary, who retired as head of economics department from Patna University.