Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during a public meeting for Lok Sabha polls, in Munger.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been known as a politician adept in making sharp and swift U-turns to remain in his chair and the beginning of the year 2024 too was witness to it when in the last week of January, Mr. Kumar made yet another political flip-flop to shake hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party and remain in power, even with support of merely 43 MLAs in a 243-member State Assembly. His party Janata Dal (United) was the third largest party in the House. Mr. Kumar’s turnaround, though, significantly paved way for his vocally critical leaders of State BJP like Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Singh to become his deputies in the Cabinet. Overnight, all the leaders started singing in the same tune.
Then came the general elections and both the alliance partners JD(U)-BJP delivered a scintillating performance by winning 24 out of total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the State, their alliance with Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) eventually took their number to 30 which helped in formation the NDA government at the Centre for record third time under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Kumar-led JD(U) became the second largest NDA alliance partner after the Telugu Desam Party. Later, the JD(U)-BJP alliance bagged all four Assembly seats in by-poll held in November.
However, ever since Mr. Kumar made the flip-flop and became Chief Minister for the ninth time, he, at every event and function, has been reiterating that now he would not go “anywhere as he would remain here [along with the BJP] forever”.
The parliamentary elections also saw entry of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s second daughter Rohini Acharya into the electoral politics of the State when she contested from Saran seat but lost to BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy by over 13,000 votes. Though, his older daughter Misa Bharti won the poll from Patliputra seat in her third attempt and became one of four party MPs to win the Lok Sabha poll.
The NDA ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, whose party won all five seats contested in the parliamentary elections, finally ousted estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras who later came out of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi Cabinet and political grapevine is that his party Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party might come out of NDA alliance before the State Assembly poll, due in October-November 2025.
New party formed
Former political strategistPrashant Kishor too officially announced to form a political party by the name of Jan Suraaj Party in Patna and fielded its candidate in all four seats in the by-polls. Mr. Kishor, earlier, had bragged to let the NDA and RJD candidates bite dust in the by-elections but lost in all four seats. He allegedly became the “vote-katwa [vote splitter]” for Opposition RJD but he quipped his party would do “better” in the coming Assembly elections.
The other political underline in the year was also Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah’s cryptic remark in an event on naming Chief Minister Mr. Kumar as NDA’s choice for the post-2025 Assembly poll. “We’ll sit together and discuss” over the issue, Mr. Shah quipped but later BJP leaders made a beeline in reiterating statements that “the NDA would contest the coming 2025 Assembly elections under Mr. Kumar’s leadership”.
Beyond politics, senior IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar Hans and former RJD MLA Gulab Yadav were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and sent to jail in connection with cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED also questioned Mr. Lalu Prasad, his younger son Tejashwi Yadav for several hours in a land-for-job scam case.
Three dozen deaths
Over three dozen people were killed in a hooch tragedy happened in Siwan and Saran districts in October this year. Ever since the new Excise and Prohibition Act was enacted in April 2016, hundreds of people, mostly poor, were killed and several lakhs of liters of illicit liquor were seized and hundreds of them sent to jail in connection with the violation of the provisions of the new prohibition Act in the State. Several policemen and Excise officials too were arrested under the Act and despite the Opposition parties questioning the new “draconian liquor laws”, Mr. Kumar has been reiterating “piyoge to maroge (if you drink, you’ll die).
In another development, the Patna High Court set aside the conviction ofbahubali (strongman)-turned politician Anant Singh’s conviction in two cases of recovery of prohibited arms and ammunition and bullet-proof jackets for which he was sent to jail for 10 years by the lower court. The four-term MLA had filed criminal appeal against his convictions.
Over three dozen homes belonging to Scheduled Castes were set on fire by an unidentified group of armed people in September in Nawada district. The police said land dispute was the reason behind the incidents. Most of the residents of the Dalit hamlet set on fire were of Manjhi and Ravidas communities.
The year inched closer to end with the continuous protests by civil services aspirants who appeared in the Preliminary Test conducted by the Bihar Public Services Commission (BPSC) on December 13 and demanded retest of the exam allegedly over the alleged charge of “paper leak”. Political leaders like Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav and Mr. Kishor along with popular educators extended their support to the protesting students but the BPSC clarified that there would be no retest.
Published – December 29, 2024 10:28 pm IST
