Politics of Bihar


The Politics of Bihar, a state in eastern India, is characterised by dominance of regional political parties. Currently, there are four main political parties: Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress. All four along with some smaller regional parties like Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha are playing vital role in Bihar politics. while Lok Janshakti Party is a small player in Bihar politics. Bihar is currently ruled by Janta Dal and Bhartiya Janata Party coalition.
, Nitish Kumar, and Ram Vilas Paswan with former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi

Administration and Governments

The constitutional head of the Government of Bihar is the Governor, who is appointed by the President of India. The real executive power rests with the Chief Minister and the cabinet. The political party or the coalition of political parties having a majority in the Legislative Assembly forms the Government. The first Chief Minister of Bihar was Sri Krishna Sinha & first Deputy Chief Minister was Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha.
Previous Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, succeeded Nitish Kumar, who resigned after Lok Sabha Polls in 2014 taking responsibility of JDU's deplorable performance. Again Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister of Bihar after Jitan Ram Manjhi was sacked.
The head of the bureaucracy of the State is called the Chief Secretary. Under him is a hierarchy of officials drawn from the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and different wings of the State civil services. The judiciary is headed by the Chief Justice. Bihar has a High Court which has been functioning since 1916. All the branches of the government are located in the state capital, Patna.
The state is divided into 9 divisions and 38 districts, for administrative purposes. The various districts are included in the following divisions – Patna, Tirhut, Saran, Darbhanga, Kosi, Purnia, Bhagalpur, Munger and Magadh Division.

History

Pre-Independence

Bihar was an important part of India's struggle for independence. Gandhi became the mass leader only after the Champaran Satyagraha that he launched on the repeated request of a local leader, Raj Kumar Shukla, he was supported by great illumanaries like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Brajkishore Prasad.

Post Independence : 1950–1975

The first Bihar governments in 1946 were led by two eminent leaders Sri Babu and Anugrah Babu. They ran an exemplary government in Bihar.
After Independence of India, the power was shared by these two Gandhian nationalists Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha who later became the first Chief Minister of Bihar and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha who decidedly was next to him in the cabinet and served as the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of Bihar. In late 60's death of central railway minister late Mr. Lalit Narayan Mishra pronounced the end of indigenous work oriented mass leaders. For two decades congress ruled the state. It was the time when a prominent leader like Satyendra Narayan Singh took sides with the Janata Party and deserted congress from where his political roots originated, following the ideological differences with the congress.

Bihar movement & Aftermath: 1975–1990

After independence also, when India was falling into an autocratic rule during the regime of Indira Gandhi, the main thrust to the movement to hold elections came from Bihar under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan.
In 1974, JP led the student's movement in the state of Bihar which gradually developed into a popular people's movement known as the Bihar Movement. It was during this movement that Narayan gave a call for peaceful "Total Revolution" & together with V. M. Tarkunde, he founded the Citizens for Democracy in 1974 and the People's Union for Civil Liberties in 1976, both NGOs, to uphold and defend civil liberties. On 23 January 1977, Indira Gandhi called fresh elections for March and released all political prisoners. Emergency officially ended on 23 March 1977. The Congress Party, suffered a defeat at the hands of the Janata Party coalition of several small parties created in 1977 and the alliance came to power, headed by Morarji Desai, who became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.
In Bihar, the Janata Party won all the fifty-four Lok Sabha seats in 1977 general elections under the mentorship of Narayan and rose to power in Bihar assembly also. Karpoori Thakur became Chief Minister after winning a contest from the then Janata Party President Satyendra Narayan Sinha.
Bihar movement's campaign warned Indians that the elections might be their last chance to choose between "democracy and dictatorship."This resulted in two things, first the identity of Bihar representing a glorious past was lost. Its voice often used to get lost in the din of regional clamour of other states, specially the linguistic states like Uttar Pradesh, & Madhya Pradesh also Bihar gained an anti-establishment image. The establishment-oriented press often projected the state as indiscipline and anarchy.
Idealism did assert itself in the politics from time to time, viz, 1977 when a wave defeated the entrenched Congress Party and then again in 1989 when Janata Dal came to power on an anti corruption wave. In between, the socialist movement tried to break the stranglehold of the status quoits under the leadership of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha and Karpoori Thakur. This could not flourish, partly due to the impractical idealism of these leaders and partly due to the machinations of the central leaders of the Congress Party who felt threatened by a large politically aware state.
The Communist Party in Bihar was formed in 1939. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the Communist movement in Bihar was a formidable force and represented the most enlightened section in Bihar. The movement was led by veteran communist leaders like Jagannath Sarkar, Sunil Mukherjee, Rahul Sankrityayan, Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Indradeep Sinha, and Chandrashekhar Singh. It was under the leadership of Sarkar that the Communist party fought "total revolution" led by Jayprakash Narayan, as the movement in its core was anti-democratic and challenged the very fabric of Indian democracy.
Since the regional identity was slowly getting sidelined, its place was taken up by caste-based politics, power initially being in the hands of the Brahmins, Bhumihars and Rajputs.However the period of 1980s witnessed a remarkable change in political scenario of Bihar, when riding upon the wave of "social justice" and no vote without representation the middle OBC castes like Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri replaced upper castes in politics.

Lalu's Politics : 1990–2004

came to power in the state in 1990 on the back of its victory at the national stage in 1989. Lalu Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister after winning the race of legislative party leadership by a slender margin against Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from the Janata Party and close to eminent Janata Party leaders like Chandrashekhar and S N Sinha. Later, Lalu Prasad Yadav gained popularity with the masses through a series of popular and populist measures. The principled socialists, Nitish Kumar included, gradually left him and Lalu Prasad Yadav was the uncrowned king by 1995 as both Chief Minister as well as the President of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was a charismatic leader who had people's support and Bihar had got such a person as the chief minister after a long time.

Populist policies and consolidation of lower castes under Lalu Yadav

According to Seyed Hossein Zarhani, though Laloo Prasad became a hate figure among Forward Castes, he drew huge support from backward castes and Dalits.He was criticised for neglecting development but a study conducted during his reign among downtrodden Musahars revealed that though the construction of houses for them hasn't been concluded at required pace, still they will choose Laloo as he returned them their "ijjat"
and for the first time they are allowed to vote.A number of populist policies which directly impacted his backward caste supporters were launched during his tenure. Some of these being; establishment of "Charvaha Schools", where children of poor could get skilled; abolishment of cess on toddy and more importantly the negligence of rules related to reservation for backward castes were made cognizable offence.Laloo mobilised backwards through his identity politics.According to his conception, Forward Castes were elite in the outlook and thus he portrayed himself as, "Messiah of backwards" by ensuring that his way of living remain identical to his supporters who were mostly poor.He even continued to reside in his quarter of one room after getting elected as Chief Minister, though later he moved to official residence of the CM for administrative convinience.
An another significant event during his regime was the recruitment of backward castes and communities to government services in large numbers.The Government's white paper claimed to have significant number of vacancies in health sector and similar manpower crunch existed across various sectors.The rules of recruitment were changed drastically in order to benefit backward castes who supported Laloo.The frequent transfer of existing officers, who were at the higher echelon of bureaucracy was also an important feature of Laloo and Rabri Devi regime.These developments led to collapse of administration and entire system.Yadav however continued to rule Bihar due to massive support from backward castes as well as his emphasis on "honour" which he considered more important than the development.Thus according to Zarhani, for the lower caste he was a charismatic leader who was capable to become the voice of those who were silent for long.
Another form of mobilisation of his Dalit supporters by Laloo Yadav was popularising all those folk heroes of lower castes, who were said to have vanquished the upper caste adversaries.One such example is of a popular Dalit saint who was revered as he not only ran away with an upper caste girl but also suppressed all her kins.Praising him could enrage Bhumihar caste in some parts of Bihar.There is a grand celebration every year at a particular place near Patna and Yadav participates in this fair with pomp and show.His energetic participation in this show makes it a rallying point for Dalits, who saw it as their victory and the harassment of upper castes.
But with his short sighted approach and populist policies Laloo couldn't bring the derailed wagon of development of the state on to the track. When corruption charges got serious, he quit the post of CM but appointed his wife as the CM and ruled through proxy. In this period, the administration deteriorated fast.

Rabri Devi's regime and deterioration of law and order

Rabri Devi, succeeded Lalu Prasad as Chief Minister though Lalu was able to influence the government from the jail.This period saw rise of strongmen from both upper and backward castes, who carved out their separate area of influence.The Lalu-Rabri regime was not supported by Forward Castes due to their political and socio-economic marginalisation under Lalu's rule.A number of influential criminals who were portrayed as leaders of their caste rose to the scene as a reaction against Lalu's "Backward caste politics". Hence people like Anand Mohan Singh, Vijay Kumar Shukla, Rama Singh, and Prabhunath Singh came to support the cause of upper castes by launching war of retribution against lower and middle castes.As for example Munna Shukla and his associates which included his brother Chhotan Shuka, were active in vaishali district of Bihar and they were consistently in clash with Lalu's minister and strongman Brij Bihari Prasad.Their tussle resulted in assassination of Chhotan, in the retribution of which Brij Bihari Prasad, a Bania was also killed.Finally Munna Shukla and Anand Mohan's reign of terror came to an end when they were convicted in murder of Gopalganj District Magistrate G. Krishnaiah, a Dalit by caste.
Earlier Anand Mohan also brought havoc for the supporters of Reservation and Mandal Commission report by forming his "Samajwadi Krantikari Sena", which was a lynching party of upper castes untill he was taken over by Lalu's close confident and strogman Pappu Yadav. In the meantime, Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Prasad Yadav, the two brother-in-laws of Lalu were also running parallel government in their own areas of influence.The novice Rabri Devi was not able to cope with the situation.Another conundrum which arose in the era of gangwars was the rise of private armies of the landlords, with these landlords the landless labourers and the poor peasantry of middle caste fought with their own organisations like Lal Sena and the Communist Party of India Liberation.
A number of big massacres were organised in the decades before lalu's rule as well as decades after and during Rabri's rule.As for example, the Dalelchak-bhagora massacre in which 42 Rajputs were killed by Maoist Communist Centre, a lynching party of Yadavs.
Similarly in "Senari carnage" which was also organised by MCC, Bhumihars were the main victim.Dalits were also killed in large numbers as for example Laxmanpur Bathe massacre by the upper castes.In Nawada region on the other hand, Ashok Mahto gang formed by Koeri and Kurmis were in a long drawn battle with Bhumihars as a consequence of which Akhilesh Singh's father in law along with a number of his family members were killed by Mahto gang.The result was a severe blow to the ambitions of Akhilesh Singh gang, which was supported by Bhumihars to take control of the area which was known for potato cultivation and sand mining.
The root cause of these skirmishes were attempt to grab more and more land in the wake of deteriorating economy and administration.The Dalelchak-bhagora massacre was also a conflict over hundreds of acres of disputed land between Yadavs and Rajputs similar is the case with Nawada were claimants were Koeri-Kurmi and Bhumihars. The naxalite cadres who were mobilising people from lower castes were active since 1960s, when the first spark of rebellion and organisation of mass murders of upper caste landlords were witnessed under leadership of Jagdish Mahto. The upper caste were countering these forces through their private armies like Kuer Sena and Ranvir Sena whilst the landlords from backward castes were doing the same through Bhumi Sena and the "Lorik Sena".

After 2004

By 2004, 14 years after Lalu's victory, The Economist magazine said that "Bihar become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronise, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties". As disaffection intensified among the masses, middle classes included, the RJD was voted out of power and Lalu Prasad Yadav lost an election to a coalition headed by his previous ally and now rival Nitish Kumar.

Politics of development under Nitish Kumar

Nitish used to be a close aide of Lalu Yadav, the parting of ways between Nitish and Lalu was a consequence of "Yadavisation" of politics and administration.According to Arun Sinha, Lalu initially wanted to project Nitish Kumar as the leader of Kurmi community however Nitish was not satisfied with the tag of the leader of a particular community rather his ambitions were much bigger than that.There are instances in Bihar's history when Nitish refrained from associating himself to any particular community, even from which he himself belonged.This was witnessed when during tenure of Lalu Prasad, a "Kurmi chetna rally" was organised in Patna.Nitish initially decided not to attend the rally but lastly he had to go there along with George Fernández. Nitish used the forum to launch a direct and open attack upon Lalu's rule and alleged marginalisation of other castes who were equally ambitious to the Yadavs.
Initially Nitish suffered defeats at the hand of Lalu Yadav and his party but later he was able to form a successful social axis of "Forward castes" as well as Koeri and Kurmi caste, who were the core supporters of Nitish. Also, he launched a series of strike against criminal politicians and all the former Bahubalis politicians were put behind the bars.Hence, the politician turned convicted criminals like Prabhunath Singh, Mohammad Shahabuddin, & Anand Mohan Singh were booked.In his bid to make Bihar crime free, many a times politicians from his own party were booked under serious charges. The era of "identity politics" unleashed by Lalu Yadav was replaced by "politics of development".Though caste based rallies were still organised in order to mobilise the voters during elections, his detachment from all such rallies became point of discussion.An incident which drew statewide attention was of a rally of Kurmis in "Gandhi Maidan", media reported that while the mob was enthused by the presence of Chief Minister and slogans like "Garv se kaho ham Kurmi hai" were echoed in the sky, he didn't uttered a word on caste.
Nitish Kumar is thus said to have regained Bihar's true identity, which is the place from where people who changed the world come like Gautam Buddha or Asoka or Sher Shah Suri or the Sikh Gurus. Despite the separation of financially richer Jharkhand, Bihar has actually seen more positive growth in recent years.
Currently, there are three main political formations: Janata Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal led coalition which also has the Indian National Congress. There are myriad other political formations. Ram Vilas Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party is a constituent of the NDA at the centre, and does not see eye to eye with Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD in Bihar. Bihar People's Party is a small political formation in north Bihar. The Communist Party of India had a strong presence in Bihar at one time, but has got weakened now. CPM and Forward Bloc have minor presence. Ultra left parties like CPML, Party Unity etc. have presence in pockets and are at war with the state.

Election in Bihar

Assembly Election

YearElectionTotal SeatWinnerWinner's seatChief MinisterDeputy Chief Minister1st Runner up2nd Runner up
19511st Assembly331 INC239Sri Krishna SinhaAnugrah Narayan Sinha??
19572nd Assembly318 INC210Sri Krishna Sinha
Deep Narayan Singh
Binodanand Jha		Anugrah Narayan Sinha??
19623rd Assembly318 INC185Binodanand Jha
Krishana Ballabh Sahay		NONE??
19674th Assembly318-NAMahamaya Prasad Sinha, JKD
Satish Prasad Singh, INC
B. P. Mandal, INC
Bhola Paswan Shashtri, INC		Karpuri Thakur ??
19695th Assembly318-NAHarihar Singh, INC
Bhola Paswan Shashtri, INC
President's rule
Daroga Prasad Rai, INC
Karpuri Thakur, Socialist Party
Bhola Paswan Shashtri, INC		NONE??
19726th Assembly318INC167Kedar Pandey
Abdul Gafoor
Jagannath Mishra		NONE??
19777th Assembly324Janata Party?Karpuri Thakur
Ram Sunder Das		NONE??
19808th Assembly324INC169Jagannath Mishra
Chandrashekhar Singh		NONE??
19859th Assembly324INC197Bindeshwari Dubey
Bhagwat Jha Azad
Satyendra Narayan Singh
Jagannath Mishra		NONE Lok Dal IND
199010th Assembly324 Janata Dal122Laloo Prasad YadavNONEINC BJP
199511th Assembly325 Janata Dal167Laloo Prasad Yadav
Rabri Devi		NONEBJP INC
200012th Assembly243 RJD with
INC and
Others		?Rabri DeviNONEBJP SAP
200513th Assembly243--President's ruleNDA
JD
BJP 		RJD with
INC 		-
200514th Assembly243NDA
JD
BJP 		143Nitish KumarSushil Kumar Modi RJD
INC 		LJP
201015th Assembly243NDA
JD
BJP 		206Nitish Kumar, Jitan Ram ManjhiSushil Kumar Modi RJD
LJP		INC
201516th Assembly243NDA
JD
BJP 		178Nitish KumarTejashwi Yadav, Sushil Kumar Modi RJD
JD		INC

General Election

Political Parties in Bihar

National Party