Thursday, Apr 25, 2013
PATNA
Amid the prevailing bitterness between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has planned to embark on yet another tour of the state from the next month. The purpose of his tour, Janata Dal (United) insiders said, is to get direct feedbacks from the villagers about the functioning of the government and feel the mood of the voters amid talks of early Lok Sabha polls.
His yatra (tour) assumes significance given the chief minister’s reported plan to dump its partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and to go it alone in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Kumar and his men believes his party will make clean sweep in the state if it goes it alone at the hustings given its huge following in the women class, backwards, extremely backward community, Muslims and others such caste groups.
Kumar has been telling all these days that nothing is predictable in politics. “I don’t know what the future holds and what will happen in future,” is how Kumar goes on telling the masses at the government functions these days, much to the worry of his alliance partner.
The Janata Dal (United) leader Kumar has undertaken seven yatras since 2005 against none taken out by its alliance partner, the BJP which has rather believed in the politics of yatras with the party patriarch LK Advani central to this theme.
Kumar first undertook Naya Yatra (march for justice) in 2005 immediately after the hung state assembly was dissolved by the then Bihar governor Buta Singh. The tour proved quite lucky for him as the NDA finally came to power for the first time in Bihar.
Then he proceeded on Vikas yatra (march for development) ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and this too proved quite successful as the NDA won 32 out of the state’s total 40 seats in the polls.
This was shortly followed by Kumar’s Dhanyavad Yatra (thanks-giving tour) across the state to thank the voters who backed his alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Then began Kumar’s Pravas yatra (sojourn tour) which was aimed at implementing governance in remote villages. The next was Vishwas yatra (confidence tour) before the 2010 state assembly polls, and this too proved quite successful as the NDA was able to win 206 seats out of total 243 seats in the state assembly.
In late 2011, Kumar set off on Seva Yatra (service tour) to check if the government programmes were being properly implemented in the state.
Even as the dust had settled, Kumar then embarked on Adhikar yatra (march for attaining rights) in September last year. The main objective of this tour was garner support of the masses for his party demand for granting special category status to Bihar. Kumar believes the grant of this status will fast-track development activities in the state and invite huge private investors.
By Lata Rani Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
