Arrow on target

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Rarely has an Assembly election in a state captured the media's attention as the one in Bihar, partly due to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's dynastic rule there for the past 15 years as well as the fact that he openly said that it was caste, and not development, that mattered in Bihar. Not surprisingly then, that when he lost, BJP firebrand Uma Bharati said on TV that the vote was a slap not just on Lalu's face, but was also a snub to former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh who was in charge of the Congress' Bihar campaign "" in the election he lost in MP, Singh too was of the view that development was not really the issue, and that social empowerment was the key.

Most newspapers played up the developments in Bihar as their lead stories for several days in north India, and predictably, the headlines were all a play on the fact that Lalu was the railways minister ("Lalu derailed", or "train goes off track" were the standard headlines) and that new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's electoral symbol was an arrow ("bullseye" and "arrow on target" were the other favourites). One newspaper decided to do a play on Lalu's election symbol (the lantern) as well and punned on Lalu's lantern being blown out.

Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar was quite restrained in its coverage though, like the rest, it too had the news as the day's top story for a few days. It also had a small box on the fact that both former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP President LK Advani would be present at Patna for Nitish Kumar's swearing in ceremony. Another story focussed on how Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's role as spoiler in Bihar was now the focus of attention in the UPA "" various analysts have been of the view that Paswan's refusal to allow a united front against Nitish had cost the Lalu-Congress alliance anywhere between 30 and 40 seats. Bhaskar had an editorial saying that Nitish's real challenge would be restoring order in Bihar. It said the election had conclusively proved that Lalu's only-caste-matters statement was incorrect and that in this election, the development of the state was the single-point reference.

Other dailies like Rajasthan Patrika also editorially congratulated the Election Commission for its role in ensuring a free and successful election. Punjab Kesri had two front page analyses by editor Ashwani Kumar as well as two editorials. One editorial criticised Left leader Sitaram Yechury for blaming Paswan for the defeat, and said that the Left's support to Lalu was completely opportunistic and was only aimed at getting power in the state since the Left was supposed to be the party of the poor and the workers, none of whom had done well under Lalu. The editorial said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could be forgiven for praising Lalu since his government depended on Lalu's goodwill, but the Left had no such compulsion.