Stage set for polls in Maoist-hit areas
PATNA: A decade ago, farmer Rameshwar Bhagat left Barachhati in Bihar’s Gaya district for Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New delhi, to work in ab angle factory. Life was good until the Covid -19 pandemic left him jobless, forcing him to return home in the hope of finding a local job in the region that was once a maoist hub.
Left- wing extremism has declined and the sight of Maoist rebels moving around the hills with guns is rare, but jobs are as elusive to find as they ever were, he found. Farming is a challenge because a pyne (artificial rivulets led off from rivers for irrigation purposes) that used to run through Bhagat’s field dried up three year ago. “Left with no option, I rented a borewellto carry water to my field for cultivation of paddy on two bighas of land. I will look for work in other states after harvesting the standing crop ,” said the 40-year-old who supports a family of five.
Lack of job creation has emerged as one of the key campaign issues for elections in Bihar.
The opposition Rashtriya Janatadal (RJD) of jailed formerchief minister Lalu Prasad has promised to create a million government jobs, which CM Nitish Kumar said is not possible, if it is voted to power. Thebharatiyajanat a Party, the partner of Kumar’ s Janata Dal (United), has promised 1.9 million jobs. “Politics has become a game of rhetoric. Tall promises are made every time by leaders, but they are conveniently forgotten for the next five years after every election,” said Ramjeet Singh, a retired school teacher.
To be sure, jobs are not the only issue in the polls to be held amid theragingcovid-19pandemic. The state’s handling of migrants who returned home in the aftermath of the lockdown imposed in March to curb the spread of Covid, and management of monsoon floods, area campaign topic as is the farm crisis and Maoism. As ever, caste will play a key role in determining the outcome.
Barachhati and Imamganj are two of the 71 constituencies in 16 south Bihar districts that go to the polls in the first round of the threephase election. Over two dozen constituencies in eight districts, including Gaya, Aurangabad, Nawada, Lakhisarai, Munger and Jamui, are considered vulnerable to Maoist violence.
Electors in the region are set to determine the fate of former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha-secular (HAM-S) leader Ji tan ram manjhi(i ma mg anj) and members of the Nitish Kumar government like agriculture minister Prem Kumar (Gaya town), labour minister Vijay Kumar Sinha (Lakhisrarai), land reforms minister Ram Narayan Mandal (Banka), mines minister Brij Kisore Bind (Chainpur), science and technology minister Jai Kumar Singh (Dinara), transport minister Santosh Nirala (Rajpur) and education minister Krishnandan
Verma (Ghosi), who are seeking their re-election.
The elections in Magadh, another region where Maoists hold influence, are also significant. TheRjd-ledM ah ag athb and han when it con tested the assembly polls with the JD(U) as apartn erin 2015, virtually swept the polls by winning 20 out of 26 seats. The situation is different this time because the JD(U) is now a part of the Bjp-led NDA. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), considered the Dalitface ofthe NDA, is contesting 42 seats in the first phase of the elections after pulling out of the NDA because of ideological differences with Nitish Kumar.
Int he mag adh regional one, the RJD won 10 seats in 2015, JD(U) managed to win six and the Congress four. The BJP had to be content with four seats. The RJD and the Congress may find themselves on a sticky wicket in Nawada and Govindpur. The last winning candidate of the RJD from Nawada, Raj Ballabh Yadav, is still in jail on charges of raping a minor and the Congress’s Poornima Yadav has returned to the, JD (U).
Ravindra Pathak, a professor of Magadh University, said: “There are plenty of issues which shall determine the direction of the elections. But people of this region are completely indifferent. The farm sector crisis, unemployment, migration, the Covid-19 outbreak , Naxalism and recurring water crises could have been major issues. But issues hardly matter these days in the clamour of caste and community politics.”