The handling of coronavirus pandemic in Bihar would be an acid test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the state assembly elections to be held later this year. Bihar will be the first state that will go to polls after the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.
Stakes are bigger for Kumar as handling of this calamity will definitely have a direct bearing on the poll prospects of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar. Whether he performed well or not as chief minister in his current term will not matter much but what will matter the most is how he contains the spread of the pandemic and limits the number of casualties.
The problem for Kumar is more confounded because he will have to perform and emerge successful in a short span of time as polls are only five months away and the contagious disease is likely to create havoc till the time a proper vaccine is tested and developed.
If Kumar handles it successfully, he will be in a win-win situation and, if he fails, he will have to face the onslaught of the belligerent opposition in the elections.
The Bihar chief minister has already been facing flak from the opposition over evacuation of students from Kota, surge of migrant labourers towards Bihar from different parts of the country and alleged inept handling of the pandemic leading to an unprecedented swell in the number of positive cases from 69 to nearly 350 in just 10 days.
The opposition parties, instead of playing a responsible role, have been unsparing and gearing up to cash in on the situation. For them, the pandemic has become an issue of political contestation with an eye on polls.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has mounted an attack on the state government for ‘abysmally low testing’, draining of medical supplies and alleged apathy towards the migrant labourers and students from Bihar stranded in other states.
Tejashwi accused the government of lacking in a concrete plan to fight the menace, nearly two months after the outbreak of the disease and apprehended that the worst was yet to come.
The issues raised by the opposition are significant, considering the paucity of testing kits, masks, ventilators, paramedical staff and poor health infrastructure in Bihar. Their apprehensions are apparent now with the substantial rise in the number of positive cases in the last over a week.
On its part, the Nitish Kumar government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that there are no lapses in setting up quarantine centres, providing testing kits and PPEs to the doctors and preventing spread of the deadly disease by strictly enforcing social distancing norms.
However, tackling the health hazard is proving to be a tough task, given the high population density in the identified hotspot areas and inadequate medical infrastructural facilities. Bihar has altogether six testing centers approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research and three dedicated hospitals for Covid-19.
The government has also been trying to alleviate the suffering of the migrant population stranded in other parts of the country and those rendered jobless within the state. It has transferred Rs 1,000 each to over 1.30 lakh migrant labourers.
Till last week, 84 lakh ration card holders in Bihar were given Rs 1,000 each taking the financial assistance to a hopping Rs 840 crore. Efforts are on to regularise another 38 lakh suspended ration cards and pay three months pension to 87 lakh pensioners.
With these measures underway, Bihar has become the first state to provide financial assistance to the people in distress. Going by the average strength of four persons in a family, Nitish’s financial support will reach about 8 crore people which is nearly 70 per cent of the estimated population.
In addition, the state government has initiated steps to revive the economic activities especially in the rural areas to deal with the crisis of burgeoning unemployment arising out of en masse return of the skilled and unskilled labourers from different parts of the country.
It was imperative because these workers needed jobs to survive on their own in Bihar as they cannot move out again in search of employment for at least three to four months before the crisis ends and normal economic activities resumes throughout the country.
Migrants play an important role in state elections as a majority of them are still voters in Bihar and return to their villages during the time of elections. Since majority of the skilled and unskilled migrant workers belonged to Backward Castes (BCs) and Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), the Janata Dal (U) led by Kumar cannot afford to anger them and alienate them.
The upcoming elections in Bihar assume significance as the poll outcome will decide whether Kumar will become the chief minister again for the fourth time in a row or the RJD, which has emerged as the single largest party in the 2015 assembly polls, will usurp power in the state.
The pandemic has not only upset the mass contact programmes of the different political parties but also cast a shadow on Bihar polls with the Election Commission considering modifications as required in the present pandemic environment.
An extended poll schedule will be to the benefit of Kumar, who will get some breathing time to plan the election strategy. As of now, the NDA under him is in an advantageous position as the Janata Dal (U), the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Lok Janshakti Party project themselves as a unified alliance. With favourable caste equation, they together command over 50 per cent of the votes.
On the contrary, the Grand Alliance stands fractured over who will be the chief ministerial candidate. There is no unanimity on the issue among the RJD, Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party led by Upendra Kushwaha, Hindustani Awam Morcha led by Jitan Ram Manjhi and Vikassheel Insaan Party headed by Mukesh Sahani, who holds sway over the numerically preponderant Mallah caste in the state.
Aware of the electoral fallout of his success or failure in handling the coronavirus crisis, Kumar is leaving no stone unturned to ensure this contagious virus doesn’t go unchecked.
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