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How not to organise a rally for Bihar polls

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Kumar Shakti Shekhar
Kumar Shakti ShekharAug 31, 2015 | 19:42

How not to organise a rally for Bihar polls

Christened "Swabhiman" (self-respect) rally, it was the first joint public meeting of Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP)'s "maha-gathbandhan" (grand alliance) in Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan on August 30, before the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar. Convened to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mention of Nitish's "political DNA" and Bihar's "Bimaru" tag during the first two of his four "Parivartan" (change) rallies, the Swabhiman rally ended up largely being RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's show all the way despite the presence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

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The turnout at the rally was impressive, but by some accounts, it was a shade thinner than Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi's October 2013 "Hunkar" rally at the same venue. This, notably, is an indicator of the dwindling support to the grand alliance because the rally was organised by three political parties with one of them - JD(U) - being in power in the state. A ruling party has a clear advantage over the others in managing resources, logistics and crowds when it comes to organising rallies. Even otherwise, the rally could have been organised better in these ways:

1. Keep flock together

While JD(U) and RJD were busy organising the rally, they failed to keep their flock together. Two sitting prominent JD(U) MLAs and a former RJD MLA joined the BJP on the eve of the rally, causing embarrassment to the grand alliance. Of the two JD(U) legislators, Renu Kumari Kushwaha is a former minister, three-term MLA and one-time Lok Sabha MP while Sunil Kumar is an MLA from Biharsharif - Nitish's stronghold in Nalanda. The third one - Raj Kishore Singh - was an RJD MLA from Muzaffarpur, where Modi launched the Parivartan rally on July 25. The development will spell worry for the Nitish and Lalu camps and lead them to check major desertions in future. They may call it poaching by the BJP, but it also indicates the direction in which the wave is turning.

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2. Follow the "maha-gathbandhan dharma"

Chinks have appeared in the six-party Janata Parivar - comprising SP, JD(U), RJD, Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)], the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) - formed on June 8, with its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav keeping away from the Swabhiman rally. He was also supposed to address the rally, but peeved over the bad treatment meted out by Nitish and Lalu, he sent his younger brother Shivpal Yadav to take his place. Mulayam's presence in the rally would have surely helped in raising the stocks of the grand alliance. Of late, Mulayam's proximity to Modi and the BJP has also become quite evident. Once instrumental in the survival of Manmohan Singh's UPA-2, Mulayam has also started maintaining a distance from Sonia. During the last monsoon session of Parliament, he even criticised Congress for the continuous stalling of proceedings. SP is peeved over the distribution of seats among the grand alliance.

Initially, JD(U) and RJD kept 100 seats each for themselves, gave 40 seats to the Congress and the remaining three to Sharad Pawar's National Congress Party (NCP). Hurt over the treatment meted out to it, NCP rejected the offer and stomped out of the alliance. SP also expressed its disagreement with the seat-sharing formula but Lalu sought to underplay it saying he would placate Mulayam, whose grand-nephew is married to his daughter. But with brewing discontentment among the rank and file of SP, Lalu agreed to give five seats to SP - two seats from RJD's quota and the three offered to the NCP. SP is yet to accept the offer. A displeased Mulayam means a dent in the Lalu's Yadav votebank in Bihar. It would do well for the RJD chief to focus on putting his house in order and keeping his allies in good humour.

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3. Focus on action, not reaction

Modi has clearly set the agenda for the poll and the grand alliance has been left just to react to him, even copying him. This sends a message that the maha-gathbandhan does not have any agenda of its own to present to the voters. Modi launched a personal attack on Nitish by making the controversial "DNA" remark, which the Bihar chief minister tried to generalise and link to "Bihari pride". Modi promised to remove the Bimaru tag from Bihar, but Nitish sought to refute his charge, contradicting himself. On one hand, he said Bihar was no more a Bimaru state, while on the other, he has been demanding special category status and a special package for the development of the state. The grand alliance launched a "shabd wapasi (take back your words)" drive resulting in the culmination of its first phase in the form of Swabhiman rally.

Even during the public meeting, Sonia, Nitish and Lalu sought to imitate Modi's speech delivery style. The Congress president ended her speech like Modi, getting interactive with the crowd and asked: "Kya aap Nitishji ke Swabhiman ko banaaye rakhne me samarthan dengey? (Will you support Nitish in maintaining his self-respect?)" In Modi's typical style, Nitish started his speech by asking the cheering crowd whether they would allow him to speak. The Bihar CM also ended his speech by asking the gathering to raise both their hands and resolve to give a befitting reply to the PM - again a Modi imprint. Lalu mimicked Modi in front of Sonia while raising the issue of the increase in prices of onion. Besides hitting out at Nitish and Lalu, Modi is focusing on developmental politics, promising to remove the Bimaru tag from Bihar and announcing a Rs 1.65-lakh crore development package for the state. Modi's strategic move has put the Lalu-Nitish combine in an unenviable position where they are neither able to reject it nor welcome it. Hence, instead of just reacting, the duo, which has separately ruled Bihar for about a quarter of a century now, should come out with a convincing roadmap for Bihar.

4. No regressive politics, please

Lalu's speech, while high on rhetoric, betrayed a sense of insecurity over the BJP's attempt at hitting on his winning formula of Muslim-Yadav (MY) combination. The BJP had breached it in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by making inroads into the Yadav votebank. It has continued with its strategy since then. It has focused on creating its own army of Yadav leaders like Nand Kishore Yadav (leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly), Ram Kripal Yadav (Union minister of state for drinking water and sanitation), Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (Lok Sabha MP from Madhubani) and Bhupender Yadav (BJP's national general secretary in charge of Bihar elections and Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan). Rajesh Ranjan, popularly known as Pappu Yadav, who defeated JD(U) president Sharad Yadav in Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 on an RJD ticket and created his own front after revolting against Lalu's "dynasty politics", is now hobnobbing with the BJP.

In this backdrop, Lalu's speech, therefore, centred on reclaiming his crucial Yadav votebank. Playing the caste card, he called for backward-Muslim consolidation to stand against the BJP, indicating his nervousness on the BJP trying to eat into his votebank. "BJP wants to break Yadavs. Will Yadavs split? Will Yadavs leave Lalu? No, they will not. If Yadavs want to split then they should tell me now. They think Yadavs are fools…Nitish and I are sons of backward caste." Once the elections are announced, Lalu will not be able to deliver such a casteist speech. Or else, he will attract the provisions of the model code of conduct for exhorting religion and caste. Next time, Lalu should think of a different speech - one devoid of caste and religion-based exhortations.

Last updated: August 31, 2015 | 20:44
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