Nitish's new Bihar

The honeymoon between Nitish Kumar and the people of Bihar began from November 24, 2005 when the former became the chief minister of the state for the second time. Since then the relation has continued to be cozy with a few controversies like the Forbesganj firing, the Rs 500 crore Excise Scam and other issues threatening to rock the JDU-BJP combine ship in Bihar.

An engineer-turned politician Nitish’s popularity could be gauged from the fact that he was voted back to power overwhelmingly in 2010 by the people. In his first tenure, he got the full backing of the media that never reported negatively about him as he was the only hope to extricate Bihar from the mess created by Lalu Prasad and his family who ruled the impoverished state for some 15 years.

It is not that in the last six years, Bihar has developed by leaps and bonds, but Nitish has managed the show well by deftly managing the media and concentrating on developmental issues. He engineered the caste equation properly by providing reservation to the maha-Dalits. Also, he succeeded in denting Lalu’s M-Y (Muslim and Yadav) vote bank.

Nitish has earned an aura of respectability in the state and his loyalists are always ready to defend him. The corruption charges tossed at the CM by the opposition has been rubbished by the national spokesman of the JDU Shiva Nand Tiwari. “The scam is nothing but a traditional sort of accounting which led to the irregularities. After the defeat, the opposition has been raising non-issues to defame a popular government. Bihar is the first state to set up a vigilance unit to keep an eye on public servants. Several top officials, including former DGP and some IAS, have been arrested on corruption charges and their property confiscated,” he said. Some 60,000 criminals have been put behind bars. Even Nitish’s party men, including Munna Shukla and Sunil Pandey, are in jail.

Over the years, the Nitish-led JDU-BJP government has successfully worked on its image. Unlike the loudmouth Lalu, CM Nitish, a laconic and who keeps reporters at arm’s length, wants to be known for his work. A self-deprecating Kurmi leader, Nitish has a mass following. Moreover, an independent-minded thinker with an even-keel temperament, Nitish has oratory skills and a knack for consensus-building.

As a chief minister of Bihar, he has worked passionately with others for achieving the goals set by his government. Of late Bihar’s economic growth has been stupendous with the price of real estate sky rocketing. Since being voted to power, Nitish has concentrated on infrastructural sector and law and order. The efforts have started yielding positive results with a few sick Sugauli and Chanpatia sugar industries generating production.

The government has even received a proposal of Rs.42 hundred crore to invest in different sectors. The biggest challenge for the Nitish government is putting Bihar back on the road to development. For this to happen he needs investors and the Congress-led UPA-II government’s help also. But with the Congress at the Centre, chances are that the party would not offer a helping hand to Nitish by sabotaging its chances of coming back to power in Bihar? Whatever the equation, the fact is that Nitish is the new king of Bihar and his honeymoon with the people continues, with the media backing him to the hilt.