November 26, 2010 was a memorable day for the people of Bihar as Nitish Kumar sworn in as the chief minister of state for second consecutive term. The grand oath taking ceremony at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan was attended by top leaders of NDA including Bharatiya Janata Party’s key leaders Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh. A crowd of over 50,000 gathered in Gandhi Maidan to become a witness of Bihar’s latest political extravaganza.
Dr. Jawed Azad - Winner from Kishanganj Constituency
While the Bihar’s politics was getting worldwide recognition, a part of the state was totally far off from this mega event. Yes, it’s Kishanganj district of Bihar, where surprising results came out this time in Assembly elections. The Janata Dal (United) – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition secured win in 206 seats of the total 243 assembly constituencies, but failed to win a single seat out of four constituencies in Kishanganj, namely Kishanganj, Kochadhaman, Bahadurganj and Thakurganj.
Naushad Alam - Winner from Thakurganj
Kishanganj, the Muslim dominated area of Bihar totally denied the JD(U) – BJP NDA alliance and voted out the four candidates Sweety Singh (BJP- Kishanganj), Mujahid Alam (JD(U) – Kochadhaman), Gopal Kumar Agarwal (JD (U) – Thakurganj) and Maswar Alam (JD (U) – Bahadurganj). Congress candidate Dr. Jawaid Azad from Kishanganj constituency defeated BJP candidate Sweety Singh in a neck-to-neck competition with a small margin of 264 votes (a best example of every vote counts). Seating RJD MLA from Kochadhaman Akhtarul Imaan secured win over JD(U)’s Mujahid Alam by 9025 votes. In Bahadurganj constituency seating Congress MLA Mohammad Tousif Alam won with a margin of 3799 votes by defeating JD (U)’sMaswar Alam. Thakurganj constituency slipped out from JD(U), where LJP’s Naushad Alam defeated seating MLA Gopal Kumar Aggarwal by 6963 votes.
Naushad Alam - Addressing public somewhere
The nail biting contest in Kishanganj came to an interesting end but the voters mandate has become a matter of concern as per experts. Fact is that, NDA’s dismal performance in Kishanganj is seen as a disaster from the development perspective of the district. Political analyzers say the four winning MLAs, two each from weak oppositions like RJD+LJP and Congress, might have to pass the acid test for getting funds from the ruling NDA government.
Naushad Alam - Winner from Thakurganj constituency
Considering the past records, it seems there would be a tough task for winning MLAs from Kishanganj to convince the Nitish Kumar for their demands. In the recent time, the project of AMU study campus in Kishanganj become a matter of discord because of political differences. The former Nitish government which once declared about the donation of 250 acres of land to Aligarh Muslim University failed to meet the promise. A controversial piece of land was given to AMU administration for setting the massive campus that was later denied by Vice Chancellor P.K.Abdul Azis. Similarly, there are many other projects that are pending and would also come in the coming five years of NDA government.
Meanwhile, it will be not wrong to be optimistic about Kishanganj with Bihar Government because Nitish Kumar has become a global standard leader and next five years will decide his legacy. By setting aside all the things including poor response of Kishanganj voters, Nitish Kumar will surely deeply think about this area that has always been important from political perspective. Now it’s up to Nitish Kumar, how he analyses the things and bring deprived district of Kishanganj too in the path of development like whole Bihar about which all are expecting in the coming 5 year.
