Congress has yet to learn a lesson, what led to collapse of Grand Alliance in Bihar?

PATNA: Votes cannot be garnered if goes behind controversies-this is the lesson the people taught Congress in the Bihar elections. The people had given this warning in the assembly elections in states including Kerala. While Rahul Gandhi stepped forward with evidence of vote rigging, the NDA campaign was fueled by highlighting the power of the double engine government. When the results came, the Congress-led Mahagathbandhan collapsed. Only the strength of the RJD saved the front from a major embarrassment.

Rahul Gandhi held a press conference alleging, with evidence, that there were major irregularities in the Haryana elections, just before November 6, the day of the first phase of polling in Bihar. They also used the voter list revision as a weapon. However, the results show that none of this was an issue in the elections.

This election was a fight for survival for the Congress in Bihar, where it had lost its roots after the 90s. The RJD and JDU, and the smaller parties that later emerged, grew by splitting the Congress vote bank. Mallikarjuna Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi led from the front to lead the Congress, but it did not yield any results. The BJP's election engineering gave the NDA a better-than-expected victory.

It is common to have anti-incumbency sentiment against a chief minister who has been in power for several years. However, in Bihar, it can be said that it was the BJP's election magic that eliminated it. The NDA alliance was able to prevent Nitish Kumar's vote banks from eroding and bring almost all the women's votes to them. Despite the change in the front, Nitish, who has been leading the government continuously since 2025, is a development hero in Bihar. Starting from the liquor ban in 2016, he became the favorite chief minister of women voters through schemes including financial assistance of Rs 10,000. That is why the BJP is putting Nitish in front.

In the first election after Operation Sindoor, the NDA made it a campaign issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah personally led the campaign. The NDA campaigned to prevent the return of ‘jungle rule’ by citing the law-and-order issues of Lalu Prasad's RJD's previous regime. Mahagathbandhan suffered a setback when the NDA highlighted the family rule and old corruption stories by mocking Lalu Prasad Yadav's desire to make his son Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister of Bihar and Sonia Gandhi's desire to make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister.

The development brought by the Narendra Modi-Nitish double engine government and the schemes like the Rs 10,000 Mahila Rozgar Yojana were the main campaign issues. Caste equations also worked in NDA's favor. It was also imperative for the BJP to maintain the NDA rule in Bihar. The BJP knew very well that if Nitish stumbled in any way, it would affect the very existence of the present central government. The BJP somehow wanted to win in Bihar in order to keep Nitish, who does not hesitate to do anything, by their side. As the goal has been achieved, Nitish should be kept inside the NDA and it has to be seen whether the BJP will try to establish dominance in Bihar.

Kishor's entry by splitting votes
It was evaluated that the votes garnered by election expert Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraj Party, which made its political debut, would be a setback for both the NDA and the grand alliance. However, the election results show that it only affected the grand alliance. The initial assessment when the results came out was that Prashant Kishor was able to steal votes in some of the RJD's strong points.

This election was a fight for survival for Tejashwi and the RJD. They understood that if they did not come to power, there would be a dropout of leaders from the party. After failing in a big test in their political career, political observers are eagerly waiting to see what the future holds for Tejashwi and the RJD.