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November 26, 2010 was a memorable
day for the people of Bihar as Nitish Kumar sworn in as the chief
minister of state for second consecutive term. The grand oath
taking ceremony at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan was attended by
top leaders of NDA including Bharatiya Janata Party’s key leaders
Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh. A
crowd of over 50,000 gathered in Gandhi Maidan to become a witness
of Bihar’s latest political extravaganza.
While the Bihar’s politics was getting worldwide recognition, a
part of the state was totally far off from this mega event. Yes,
it’s Kishanganj district of Bihar, where surprising results came
out this time in Assembly elections. The Janata Dal (United) –
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition secured win in 206 seats of
the total 243 assembly constituencies, but failed to win a single
seat out of four constituencies in Kishanganj, namely Kishanganj,
Kochadhaman, Bahadurganj and Thakurganj.
Kishanganj, the Muslim dominated area of Bihar totally denied the
JD(U) – BJP NDA alliance and voted out the four candidates Sweety
Singh (BJP- Kishanganj), Mujahid Alam (JD(U) – Kochadhaman), Gopal
Kumar Agarwal (JD (U) – Thakurganj) and Maswar Alam (JD (U) –
Bahadurganj). Congress candidate Dr. Jawaid Azad from Kishanganj
constituency defeated BJP candidate Sweety Singh in a neck-to-neck
competition with a small margin of 264 votes (a best example of
every vote counts). Seating RJD MLA from Kochadhaman Akhtarul
Imaan secured win over JD(U)’s Mujahid Alam by 9025 votes. In
Bahadurganj constituency seating Congress MLA Mohammad Tousif Alam
won with a margin of 3799 votes by defeating JD (U)’sMaswar Alam.
Thakurganj constituency slipped out from JD(U), where LJP’s
Naushad Alam defeated seating MLA Gopal Kumar Aggarwal by 6963
votes.
The nail biting contest in Kishanganj came to an interesting end
but the voters mandate has become a matter of concern as per
experts. Fact is that, NDA’s dismal performance in Kishanganj is
seen as a disaster from the development perspective of the
district. Political analyzers say the four winning MLAs, two each
from weak oppositions like RJD+LJP and Congress, might have to
pass the acid test for getting funds from the ruling NDA
government.
Considering the past records, it seems there would be a tough task
for winning MLAs from Kishanganj to convince the Nitish Kumar for
their demands. In the recent time, the project of AMU study campus
in Kishanganj become a matter of discord because of political
differences. The former Nitish government which once declared
about the donation of 250 acres of land to Aligarh Muslim
University failed to meet the promise. A controversial piece of
land was given to AMU administration for setting the massive
campus that was later denied by Vice Chancellor P.K.Abdul Azis.
Similarly, there are many other projects that are pending and
would also come in the coming five years of NDA government.
Meanwhile, it will be not wrong to be optimistic about Kishanganj
with Bihar Government because Nitish Kumar has become a global
standard leader and next five years will decide his legacy. By
setting aside all the things including poor response of Kishanganj
voters, Nitish Kumar will surely deeply think about this area that
has always been important from political perspective. Now it’s up
to Nitish Kumar, how he analyses the things and bring deprived
district of Kishanganj too in the path of development like whole
Bihar about which all are expecting in the coming 5 year.
Mohammad Mudassir Alam
is a Delhi based journalist.
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