The Bihar elections, scheduled to be held later this month, is seeing a peculiar political battle emerging as RJD and BJP engage in ‘Rap Song politics’ to get back at each other. BJP, on Tuesday, released a campaign song titled ‘Bihar Me Ee Ba’ in Bhojpuri to take on RJD’s rap song titled “Bihar Me Ka Ba (What`s up with Bihar)” sung by one Neha Singh Rathore.
The song is meant to highlight the achievements of the NDA government where the party stresses upon the healthcare and education in the state as well as the credit facilities provided in the wake of the lockdown. It also emphasizes the development work carried out under the NDA government, ranging from the establishment of IITs, IIMs, and AIIMS to bridge constructions, women-centric empowerment to migrant-centric skill development.
“NDA ke raaj me ba dalalaapanee Bihar ho, IIT-IIM ba dekha, double bani ab AIIMS ho, ee sab ba parivartan d ekha, saaf karaaapan lens ko (Bihar has developed under NDA. IIT-IIMs and double AIIMS have been established here. Just change your lens to see).” read the lyrics of the song.
“Here, we have promised that in next five years, we will make Bihar self-reliant on most parameters, but people in rural areas understand Bhojpuri better so to counter the narrative, we have answered that question through ‘Bihar Mein Ka Ba,” said Manan Krishna, the party’s IT cell chief in Bihar.
प्रदेश की जनता दे रही है 'बिहार में ई बा' गाने को भरपूर समर्थन।#बिहार_में_ई_बा pic.twitter.com/P4Nv4mmJyG
— BJP Bihar (@BJP4Bihar) October 13, 2020
The genesis of the RJD rap song was Anubhav Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee’s song ‘Bambai Mein Ka Ba’ (what is there in Mumbai?), which was released last month. Although the song didn’t mention Bihar anywhere, it was certain that Anubhav Sinha was taking a jibe at Bihar and the state government.
Then it was copied by Neha Singh Rathore, who infused the Bihar flavour to it. Through her song, political parties like the RJD and the Congress are involved in a poster war to challenge the NDA government.
However, by releasing a counter rap song, BJP has sent a subtle yet strong message to both its opposition parties and JDU in the coalition. In the rap song, BJP is only highlighting the achievements as the work done by NDA and not JDU. The choice of the lyrics seems like a conscious decision from the top brass of the party to alienate JDU and Nitish Kumar gradually in the state.
After LokJanshakti Party’s decoupling from NDA in Bihar, murmurs have been growing that the Chirag Paswan led party had been purposely asked to do so as BJP led by its tactician Amit Shah wants to shed the baggage of Nitish Kumar. BJP knows that going a separate way from JDU might cause a repeat of 2015 but engineering the events from outside could be BJP’s golden chance to form a government on its own in the state.
The LJP leader has made his intentions crystal clear that he is no longer content to play the second fiddle in the state. Chirag has openly stated his loyalty to the BJP and consequently, he is planning to cut into the JD(U) votes in the 143 seats that his party is contesting and emerge as the potential kingmaker in case the NDA falls short of a majority.
Read more: Chirag Paswan is now going to take on Nitish Kumar with renewed vigour after Nitish’s insults
If BJP can win 80-90 seats out of 121 it is contesting, and LJP wins 25-35 seats out of 143 it has decided to contest, they can form the government on their own without any support from Nitish Kumar’s party.
Even if the alliance needs a few MLAs to form the government, the leaders in JD(U) camp would be more than willing to support a BJP CM as many of them themselves do not like Nitish Kumar who is stuck with CM chair for last one and a half decades and is not giving chance to young leaders to come forward in the hierarchy.
The battle lines have been drawn in the eastern state and with the election dates not even 15 days away, the political slugfest is only getting heated. Rap songs have already been served and it needs to be seen, what else is in store for the voters.
