As elections near, COVID-19, not caste could resonate poll discourse in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh

While the fight against COVID-19 continues during the fourth nationwide lockdown, slowly politics has made an entry in the discourse with a bang and two major elections falling within next six months could be testimony to how the pandemic has played politically for the rival players.

While assembly elections for Bihar are slated by October this year where NDA led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as of now is poised for a tough battle against the grand alliance of Lalu Prasad’s RJD, Congress and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP, 25 assembly seats will go for bye-election in Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has in March managed to upstage Congress government led by Kamal Nath with Jyotiraditya Scindia walking away from Congress fold to BJP with two dozen MLAs.

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Congress has been alleging that the government action plan against COVID-19 including clamping national lockdown was delayed due to political concerns in Madhya Pradesh and not only the state, but the entire nation had to pay for it. Making a shrill pitch for “Go Shivraj”, Congress has now asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove Chouhan alleging he has brought a bad name to the state with the entire Madhya Pradesh barring five districts affected by COVID-19. Indore in Madhya Pradesh has been a major national hotspot of COVID-19.

Congress has alleged that in the third week of March when COVID-19 was raising its head in the state, the BJP was busy toppling the Nath government which ultimately fell on March 20 paving the way for oathtaking of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as BJP Chief Minister. Since elections for all 25 seats (after resignation of 22 Congress MLAs close to Scindia and death of one MLA from Congress and BJP each and resignation of one BJP MLA) have to be completed within six months that is before September, Congress has ratcheted up the COVID mismanagement campaign against the BJP, telling people how the ruling party for the sake of power compromised with people’s security.

In Bihar, where Nitish Kumar, who first defeated the BJP-led NDA in October 2015 state polls after aligning with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress and then went back to NDA in 2017, faces attack of ‘ignoring” migrants from the state stranded in different states and voicing his disapproval for people coming back to Bihar from COVID-19 affected zones.

In the caste ridden politics of Bihar, slowly the pandemic is becoming the focal point of politics. Former Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday tweeted: “Bihar govt’s casual approach towards our repeated requests, regarding 𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 wil hv catastrophic results. From 1st-21st May, 𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 remains a meager 1510/day while daily rise in cases (last 10 days) is 95. 𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 can only flatten the curve.𝐖𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩!”

The main Opposition RJD has launched a massive campaign against Kumar, offering to send buses with its own resources to ferry the migrants. The majority of migrants in the country are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Recently Railways tweaked rules and did away with the provision of consent from states to run the trains in order to speed up the movement of migrants through trains. BJP went to town after the move seeking to project how serious the party is towards mitigating the sufferings of the migrants.

Knowing well the potential of the campaign, BJP chief J P Nadda, who on Wednesday held a video conference meeting with the Core Committee of Bihar BJP impressed upon the need to counter the Opposition campaign against the BJP on migrant issues. BJP has claimed that nearly 30 lakh migrant labourers have been reached to their homes through 2050 Shramik Special trains.

Immediately after the meeting Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal took to Twitter accusing Congress of doing “cheap politics” on the issue of migrants and alleged that many migrants from Bihar and UP are still stuck in Congress-ruled Punjab and Rajasthan and in Maharashtra where Congress is part of the government.

Nadda on Thursday tweeted “the central govt under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all the BJP workers are working relentlessly in relief & evacuation efforts. In this difficult time BJP is standing firmly with all affected people.” Jaiswal tweeted the list of special non AC trains that include cities from Bihar and thanked the Railway Minister for this.

The BJP has decided to highlight the 20 lakh crore package announced by the Modi government to ward off the criticism of Lockdown losses as alleged by the Opposition.