THE massive victory of BJP in West Bengal has temporarily relegated to the background the quiet and Machiavellian tactics of BJP to take power in Bihar. The BJP is overjoyed with its success in West Bengal, taking a longer route of initially projecting Mamta Bannerjee and extolling her as “Kali Ma” to annihilate CPI(M) and later on projecting her as evil incarnate.  As the saying goes, all is fair in love and war and BJP has perfected this art by employing all the constitutional institutions under its thumb to further its interest with divisive politics of caste and communal polarisation to usurp power.

It was a rather painful experience for BJP in Bihar as it had to cross many hurdles right from the beginning of the coalition era after the demise of Congress in Bihar.

Though it tasted power during coalition era off and on. But the last two decades of Nitish Kumar rule, a Lohiyaite and student leader during the 70s, allowed BJP to strengthen its base among the old feudal high caste elements who deserted the Congress party and embraced BJP in the hope of regaining their old hold on administration and the political affairs of the state.

Much water has flown since then and Bihar politics has under gone a sea change. The 15-year rule of Lalu Prasad and later on Nitish Kumar ensured that no political formation can ignore the political aspirations of OBCs, EBCs, dalits and other marginalised sections of society. Minorities have, however, lost their representation in a big way. The gain for AIMIM in Bihar brings to the fore the weaknesses of the Left and secular forces to address fears and anxieties in the toxic atmosphere created by BJP and its different organisations working under different nomenclature, spreading hate, superstition and bigotry. Huge money at their disposal facilitates their work even in remote areas and among the dalits and other marginalised sections.

The formation of the NDA govt under Samrat Chowdhary as the Chief Minister corroborates the fact that BJP has realised the ground reality of Bihar and has kept its high caste leaders at bay, choosing a non-RSS face from the OBC category to lead the government. The hue and cry of some of its leaders like Vijay Sinha, Mangal Pandey and others were just ignored and they were forced  to toe the line of the Modi-Amit Sah duo, the main architects of so called Operation Lotus to demolish one by one, the regional political parties that mushroomed after Congress lost its monopoly on power.

JD(U) was hemmed it by BJP loyalists and made to accept the dictates of BJP. The longer wait of the BJP has finally fructified. But it has still to conquer Bihar. BJP’s single point campaign against dynastic politics in Bihar lies in tatters. Chief Minister Samrat Chowdhary’s cabinet is full of sons and daughters of all the political formations constituting NDA. These worthies have inherited their thrones at the cost of workers and leaders working at the ground level. Nitish Kumar always stood against dynastic politics criticising Lalu Prasad, but the ruling alliance has had to accept Nishant Kumar as his heir apparent in JD(U) and the Ministry too. This is also a trap for Nitish Kumar for which he is himself responsible, having put social democrats in the service of fascist forces.

The power transition in Bihar is not a normal phenomenon but the start of a dark period. Bihar has a history of fighting against feudal barbarity and the authoritarian onslaught of the state repressive machinery.

It is the irony of the situation that when the new ministry was under formation the BPSC students in and around Gandhi Maidan were lathi-charged. Even women students were not spared. Such militant actions of different sections of workers, peasants, students and youths, women will be witnessed in days and months to come.

The newly appointed education minister, Mr Mithilesh Tiwary, when asked by the press persons why the agitating boys and girls were mercilessly beaten by the police, just parroted the typical RSS reaction that girls need not agitate on roads, rather they should stay in their homes, bringing to the fore the anti-women attitude of the Sangh Parivar. This is how they want to ‘empower’ women.

Left parties along with secular democratic forces who enjoy considerable influence among the different suffering sections of the society must close their ranks to fight the NDA in its new incarnation.