Vote Purchase in Bihar Debate hots up

Bihar Assembly election results have people across the country debating what made the NDA alliance to win quintuple times despite the anti-incumbency against the twenty years old Nitish Kumar government and his failing health. Whether the NDA bankrolled the mandate to rule Bihar for another five years or it was the Election Commission’s sleight of hand?

The debate is rife among the subalterns and the proletariat. A car driver from Bihar in Delhi asked me the other day whether Prime Narendra Modi fixed the election with money power. An Uber cab driver from Uttar Pradesh asserted that it was money all the way.

Vote chor (theft)or vote (khariddar) is no more just Rahul Gandhi's allegations. It is still being debated at every nook and corner across the country following the magician's flashes by the NDA in Bihar. The winners are themselves surprised and seeking clues to justify their victory. According to an internal survey by the BJP leadership, the alliance was likely to get about 140 seats.

Home Minister Amit Shah had put the expected tally at 160. How come they hit a double century on a wicket on which the pacers had the advantage. The victory cannot be attributed to one single factor but undoubtedly the transfers of cash into the voters' accounts under various schemes just before the election and all through the poll process proved the game changer.

Prashant Kishor of Jan Suraaj says that post-Independence India for the first time saw the purchase of votes by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in this election. About 1.5 crore members of the Self-Help Group (SHO) were given Rs. 10,000 each as seed money to start small businesses with the promise that they would further get Rs. 1.90 lakh each on the basis of the reports certifying setting up businesses by them with the seed money.

Prashant Kishor has further alleged that the voters have been paid by diverting money from the contingency fund and a portion of the World Bank loan. He has made it the political agenda of his Jan Suraaj party to ensure that the payees get the promised amount of Rs two lakh within a reasonable time. His party would soon start a campaign for it.

The new Bihar government will be on test from day one. If it fulfills the promises made to these women, it would win the day. But if it falters, it would prove a milestone around its neck.

When the NDA landed on the campaigning trail it found itself confronted with a new narrative of unemployment, migration and corruption across the state ministries and departments. Its “Ghuspaethia” agenda proved a damp squib. As Nitish had no shining achievements of the last five years to sell to the voters, it found itself devoid of any marketable idea to mobilise the voters. Defeat was staring at the alliance face amid Nitish Kumar’s failing health, and the age-old jungle raj agenda having outlived its shelf life to resonate with the voters.

Suddenly, the idea of warming the pockets of poor voters occurred to them in the darkness, and money started pouring into their accounts.

First came a 300 percent increase in the old age, widow and divyang pension from Rs. 400 to 1, 100.Thereafter came increases one after another in the honorariums of various beneficiary groups. And finally came the bombshell, the Rs. 10,000 masked with the promise to promote women entrepreneurship. When the cash registers of the poor voters started ringing, their loyalties started shifting to the NDA that saw them observe the puja with smiles on their faces. They gained both, tryst with money as well the god, and the NDA in return had a smooth walk to the Assembly House.

This quid pro quo, money for vote, was a unique political USP. It was bribery as well as no bribery. Socialists call it democratic socialism or participatory socialism. NDA apologists say Mohammed Mamdani also won the New York Mayoral election on freebies to extend relief to the poor and in the city.

But to extend the help just before the election and keep on transferring money to the voters’ accounts all through the fifteen days campaign period with the Chief Minister reiterating in his every speech that the recipients of Rs. 10,000 would not have to refund the money and not stressing that it was meant to start a business, so do not spend it on your routine expenses, was not meant for their welfare but to buy their favours at the booths.

The Election Commission kept mum over all this. The opposition parties also maintained silence over it fearing backlash against them. They had also lined up a series of sustainable/unsustainable freebies for them. Prashant had a scheme for generating around Rs. 20,000 earnings per year for each family. So, all of them looked the way when the NDA was bargaining with voters for their support for money.

We all know that an election to a representative body is also to a very large extent managerial tasks: how to woo voters on long promises, how to ensure the arrival of voters at the booths, how to manage undue favours from the officers on election duty by the ruling party, how to play with the voters' list and how to adopt coercive methods to stop the voters perceived to be opposed to a particular party or candidate from casting  their voters.

Years back it was done by the use of naked force. It is still being done but with changed methods. Distribution of liquor and money has been included and accepted as a vital election weapon to win votes. But Nitish Kumar scaled up the distribution of money in the garb of welfare schemes to an industrial scale which the opposition money bags could not match and found themselves money-bowled.

Is it a one-off affair or will it become a part of the electoral politics in the country in the long run. The Election Commission and the opposition parties have an obligation to seek an answer to it. Otherwise, the loss of faith in the quinquennial ritual will see a sharp descent with serious consequences.