Sir Not Top Issue in Bihar

Between Us

- Pankaj Vohra

Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra has without doubt enhanced his status as a leader, while putting the Election Commission of India on the backfoot, forcing it to come out with clarifications regarding deleted voters. The issue has found resonance all over the country and according to some analysts, it has projected the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha as an alternative to the BJP.

However, the matter is not likely to make much impact in Bihar, where the elections are due in the next two months, since there are some other more pressing issues that continue to dominate the political landscape there. The question of Rahul being an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi may figure in discussions and debates in television studios, but it is the people of India who shall finally decide on who would be the primary leader, and not the political analysts.

Rahul has been working extremely hard and even in Bihar, his rallies have been attracting huge crowds. As per reports pouring in from the state, even the meetings of Jan Suraaj, a party launched by Prashant Kishor, last year, are well attended, though it is a different matter whether the exercise would yield political dividends when the actual voting takes place.

The Congress has suffered in the past several elections because it does not have a robust organisational structure and so far as Jan Suraaj is concerned, its ability to convert attendance into votes would largely depend on how its volunteers reach out to the voters at the grassroots.