Patna,(BiharTimes): After unsuccessfully raising the demand of special category status for Bihar for so many years, chief minister Nitish Kumar has now turned his attention towards the total prohibition.
The man, who would once use special category status as an offer to lend support to any government at the Centre, now hardly raises this issue anywhere in the state or outside.
Though the BJP was still its partner the JD(U) never took the support of the saffron party to campaign for the special status.
As it failed to cut much ice, Nitish has now embarked on the new slogan of prohibition. No doubt he succeeded in getting widespread support, especially from women, the prohibition over-drive, it is feared, may harm him in the long run. Therefore, he yielded to Lalu Prasad’s advice on removing ban on toddy––at least for a year.
Be it in Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Mirzapur or in Jharkhand, Kerala and Maharashtra, Nitish minced no words to denounce alcoholism––though it is also true that in the first 10 years of his rule he promoted the booze culture to earn some revenue for the state.
Nitish’s problem is that very often he goes overboard, while championing his cause.
He would think that the construction of roads and bridges as well as distribution of bicycles, uniforms and books alone helped him retain power in 2010.
No doubt these were good works, but the same Nitish suffered humiliating defeat in 2014 when the alliance with the BJP broke a year earlier.
Similarly, all the good works on prohibition may not yield any positive result for Janata Dal (United) in Bihar in future if it snaps its relationship with the other two alliance partners.
Nitish owes his position largely to RJD and Congress. Therefore, he had to buckle under the pressure on the issue of toddy this time.
Political observers are a bit surprised over his repeated forays into poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. If he could not win all alone in Bihar in 2014 Lok Sabha election and had to take arch rival, RJD, into his fold in 2015 how can it be possible to bring wonder in neighbouring state alone?
He thinks that he would cut-into Koeri-Kurmi votes in that state.
No doubt Koeris and Kurmis, especially the latter, appreciate his leadership, yet it is difficult to say that they would abandon Apna Dal, especially after one of its two MPs, Anupriya Patel, was inducted into the Narendra Modi cabinet recently.
It is true, Apna Dal has got split with the mother, Krishna Patel, leading the other faction, yet it is too early to say how much Nitish factor will play its role in UP.
Besides, Koeri-Kurmi votes alone are not so overwhelming as to bring about any big change in the UP politics.
Though Nitish is using prohibition as the slogan the fact is that he is banking on the caste votes in UP. This is a risky move.
Anyway in this cacophony of prohibition the special status demand for Bihar has got submerged. This is so in spite of his own statement that the state today is getting less from the Centre than during the UPA regime.
