Beyond two main alliances of the ruling party and the opposition– the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) — several other political outfits and figures are in the race in the run up to the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar.
Like in every state, several political parties and players suddenly emerge during the course of elections. Some even end up making some impact by splitting the votes and sometimes dent the outcome of a poll so much that they carve their own space, but most of them only become buzz and fizzle out soonest as the polls are over.
In October, 2024, two new political parties were formed. One was by former union minister RCP Singh, who once headed the JD-U and was considered a confidante of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar before falling out of favour which led to the end of his cabinet berth in the Narendra Modi government and later faded out of BJP’s Bihar plans. He floated Aap Sabki Awaaz (AASA), which, he said, would field candidates on all the 243 seats.
Few weeks before him, poll strategist Prashant Kishor announced the formation of his Jan Suraj Party after carrying out over two-year long padyatra in the state and vowed to provide a viable alternative. It also contested the by-elections in the state on four seats and though it could not win any, it managed to poll 10% votes to tilt the balance. He has his show of strength today when Jan Suraj will hold the party’s first big rally at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna. The party plans to contest all the 243 seats in Bihar.
In keenly fought elections where margins are low, smaller parties could make or mar the prospects of fancied candidates. In 2020, there were several seats, including that of education minister Sunil Kumar (Bhore), science & technology minister Sumit Kumar and Buxar MP Sudhakar Singh (Ramgarh) that were decided by a margin of less than 1000 votes.
Earlier this week, former IPS officer Shivdeep W Lande, who resigned in September last year while he was serving as IG (Purnea), announced the formation of a new political outfit ‘Hind Sena’ which, he declared, will contest all the seats in upcoming assembly elections and work on the principles of nationalism, service and dedication to catch people’s imagination.
Another senior IPS officer, Vikas Vaibhav, currently posted as IG, has also been running a social campaign ‘Let’s Inspire Bihar’ to mobilise youth on a large scale in all the districts of Bihar as well as metro cities for over two years with the message to rise above casteism, communalism and gender discrimination. There is growing speculation that at some stage he could also jump on to the political bandwagon.
But then, the list of political parties in the state is always big and it gets bigger as the election approaches despite the predominantly triangular politics of the RJD, BJP and the JD-U for three and half decades. In 2020 Assembly election, Bihar had over 125 political parties, apart from the unrecognised ones registered outside the state, and it could get bigger this time. Pushpam Priya’s ‘The Plurals Party’ had caught everyone’s attention due to the flutter she created at the outset.
The 2020 statistics say it all, when 3,205 candidates constituting 85.8% of the total candidates lost their security deposit in Bihar, while the number of such candidates was 2,935 (85%) in 2015. For the 40 Lok Sabha seats last year, there were 626 candidates in the fray, though it was NOTA that emerged on the third spot in 13 constituencies.
More than 80% of candidates in Bihar had forfeited their security deposits in the last two parliamentary elections as well as the assembly polls in the state, according to the information available with the Election Commission of India (ECI). This is so despite ECI’s decision to increase the nomination fee and raise the expenditure bar of candidates to weed away non-serious candidates.
“The 2020 Assembly election results showed how close it could get and how small could be the margin of error. Given that, vote splitting could turn out to be a big spoiler either way. Elections these days are more a matter of strategy and that makes every vote important, irrespective of whether it is added or deleted from rivals,” said former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studied, DM Diwakar.
He, however, expressed surprise about the election funding to these parties. “Fighting election is no more the cup of tea of a common man. It is becoming more and more capital intensive and that makes me wonder why so many fringe players will join the race to lose. There is, however, also a different side to it. More parties mean more opportunities for candidates, who can go anywhere if denied ticket by their respective parties,” he added.
