With less than a year left for Assembly elections in Bihar, political parties have hit the road with a spate of yatras. Joining the yatra would be Bihar chief minister who would be embarking on Mahila Samvad programme (Yatra) organised by the rural development department of the state government.
The state cabinet on Tuesday, sanctioned ₹225 crore for the proposed yatra, which in all likelihood would begin after the winter session of Bihar assembly. The winter session of the assembly begins on November 25 and ends on November 29. This entire yatra is being organised by the Rural Development Department, in which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would establish a dialogue with women of rural areas.
“The exact dates of the yatra organised by the rural development department is yet to be formalised but it would definitely start after the assembly session and continue till the Assembly polls are announced,” said a senior Bihar minister.
“The focus of this tour will be women and by by talking to women Nitish Kumar will try to read the mood of women voters as they happen to be his core voters,” said the minister. Women voters form nearly 48% of Bihar’s total voting population of 76433329 (Voting population during Lok Sabha polls 2024).
In fact, the decison to hold such a yatra exclusively for women was decided soon after other opposition parties including the RJD organised Abhaar Yatra of Tejashwi Yadav from September 10, which was abandoned mid way, said the JD (U) leaders aware of the matter.
“The format of this visit of Nitish Kumar will be different from his previous visits. During this yatra, the CM will take feedback from the beneficiaries by directly interacting with them on the state government ongoing schemes for women,” the minister added.
A few months back, Lesi Singh, a minister from the JD-U quota in the Bihar government, said that Nitish Kumar keeps visiting people on some or the other pretext or tour. “He is the only leader who takes care of half the population,” Singh had said.
Nitish planning to take his next yatra with woman at the centre has started the discussion that the JD-U president is engaged in strenging the women vote bank before the 2025 assembly elections. “By initiating many government schemes for women, reservation policy and liquor ban Nitish has made his presence among women voters and in return has got their blessings. Women voters are special for JD-U so the party wants to strengthen it further before the assembly elections. It was Kumar who implemented the prohibition in 2016 and it paid him rich dividends,” said Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of Sociology, College of Commerce in Patna.
Not only this, Kumar has many such schemes which directly affect women and girls. Because of those schemes, Kumar is very popular among women.
