Bihar Assembly Elections, 2020

The Bihar Assembly Elections of 2020 may have a high degree of significance to those who have a direct stake in these elections. Such stakeholders, particularly from the incumbent side, would choose to look at these elections ignoring their government’s poor performance. Thus, the incumbents are seen as being affirmatively complacent in their election imagination. On the other end, the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of the opposition parties seeks to approach the ensuing election by resorting to an evaluative mode; a mode that has an anti-incumbency thrust. The oppositional mobilisation around the anti-incumbency plank is too straightforwardly self-confident to require the former to lapse into any kind of complacency. Hence, an important question needs to be raised with regard to the efforts made by the ruling combination to feel electorally secure.

What is the self-understanding of the incumbent leaders who have a direct stake in the upcoming assembly election in Bihar? This question becomes relevant in the context of claims for success that are being made by those who refuse to acknowledge their failures. The failures are stark in terms of quality of life that has bearings on educational opportunities, adequate health facilities, employment, and industrial and agricultural development. It is, however, astonishing to hear the incumbent leaders once again making the promise of Bihar’s development.