Message from Bihari voters is clear – no place for Bhai-Bhateeja politics in Bihar

In the 2019 general election, the voters of the country made it very evident that they do not like the dynastic political culture that was nourished by the Congress party and flourished under its regime. Most of the second or third generation leaders were dealt with a heavy blow in the election by the voters.

The same is being repeated in the Bihar assembly election 2020. Contrary to what the exit polls were claiming, the voters of Bihar did not choose 9th failed Tejashwi Yadav to represent them, as per the trends, in which Mahagathbadhan is trailing BJP by a huge margin. Scions of many dynasties, irrespective of the party, are trailing as the voters rejected Bhai-Bhatijawad in the political representation.

Tej Pratap Yadav, the older son of Lalu Yadav, who is contesting from Hasanpur assembly seat, was trailing at the time this article was being written. Similarly, JD(U) candidate Chandrika Rai–who is also the father in law of Tej Pratap Yadav and son of Daroga Prasad Rai, former CM of Bihar–is trailing.

Sadhu Yadav, the maternal uncle of Yadav brothers, who is contesting on a BSP ticket, is also trailing. Some other known dynasts like Luv Sinha, whom the media-hyped a lot, given the fact he is the son of Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha, is also trailing. Sinha is fighting on Congress ticket from Bankipur constituency and is expected to get a lower number of votes than even NOTA.

Suhasini Raj, daughter of socialist leader Sharad Yadav, is contesting on a Congress ticket from Bihariganj seat and is trailing by a huge margin.

Congress gave space to most dynasts- as it does in every election- and its strike rate is one of the poorest. The party is leading only on 18 seats out of 70 it contested, which takes its strike rate at 25 per cent- poorer than even Communist parties that are leading on 19 seats out of 29 they contested.

Despite the repeated slap on the face of dynastic leaders, Congress and other regional parties refuse to learn a lesson. And, this is the reason behind the fact that BJP is able to defeat Congress or any other political party involved in dynastic politics. BJP and the Communist parties are the only cadre-based political parties in the country and they easily bag the votes of those who hate dynastic succession in politics. Earlier a lot of these votes used to go to Communist parties, but, since the Communist parties have started aligning with the dynastic regional parties like RJD in order to defeat BJP, most of the voters who hate dynastic succession chose the saffron party.