New Delhi: Faced with poverty and unemployment, the people of Bihar are looking for a change in the upcoming assembly polls, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said on Sunday and called for ensuring focus on ground issues to prevail over attempts at social engineering and polarization.
In an interview with PTI, he also accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of failing to check the "cocktail of crime, communalism and corruption".
"The BJP hopes Bihar will be like Maharashtra and Delhi but the other option is that Bihar should be like Jharkhand," Bhattacharya said.
He claimed the 'vikas' model had failed in Bihar.
"There is a cocktail of crime, communalism and corruption. The people want change. They don't just want a change in chief minister or the government, they want solutions for their issues," Bhattacharya said.
"...wages are the lowest in Bihar. ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers get Rs 1,500..." he said.
Displacement and people losing lands have become major issues amid the ongoing land survey for updation of records and poor land acquisition policy, he alleged.
"A large number of people are being displaced from their lands," he said.
Bhattacharya compared the land survey with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam.
"The recent land survey in Bihar, I think, is some kind of equivalent to the NRC in Assam. It has created huge insecurity, people don't have papers for their lands; the land has been divided between families over the years but there is no legal documentation..." he said.
"People are running from pillar to post for their land records, there is a lot of corruption... Besides, land is being taken from farmers in the name of roads, railway tracks, smart cities, urbanisation... The compensation paid is not enough and, sometimes, the farmers don't get anything. So displacement and land acquisition are big issues," he said.
He also counted poverty as a major issue in the state where a caste survey had revealed that around 63 per cent of families earned less than Rs 10,000 per month.
This, Bhattacharya said, led to a debt crisis as people were forced to take loans to survive.
"The debt crisis is a huge issue, there are issues related to microfinancing as well," he said.
The CPI(ML) Liberation, over the past year, has been conducting 'padyatras' and outreach programmes in Bihar. This will culminate with the Badlo Bihar Mahajutan rally in Patna on March 2, he said.
"If we can't bring these issues to the fore, the BJP will try to do something like it did in Jharkhand by raking up illegal infiltration... It would create some artificial, polarising issue and try to derail the election discourse," he said.
The Nitish Kumar government is not listening to the problems of the common people and the CPI(ML) Liberation is making an attempt to create solidarity between activists and movements on the ground for a larger mobilisation, he added.
"The March 2 rally is the culmination of a process that started after the Lok Sabha election. We started with the mobilisation of the rural poor," Bhattacharya said.
From July to August 2024, demonstrations were held at the block level. After that, around 20 'padyatras' were taken out in different regions, including one from Nawada to Patna in October that was led by Bhattacharya.
Earlier this month, a 'padyatra' was conducted from Forbesganj to Purnea.
Bhattacharya said, "We got a huge response… Every day, we had 100 to 200 people coming with their demands that they wanted their MLAs to raise -- from schoolchildren talking about education to people losing lands..." The CPI(ML) Liberation also organised a series of Badlo Bihar Samagam at 12 centres to bring together activists over various social justice demands.
"...we hope the Badlo Bihar Mahajutan becomes a true people's assembly," Bhattacharya said.
The state assembly will be in session when the rally will be held and aims to set an agenda for the House to debate, he added.
Asked about the state's caste equation, Bhattacharya said ground issues such as the reservation promised after the caste survey, poverty and land acquisition issue were bigger concerns for the people.
"One can cobble together any kind of coalition and perform any kind of engineering… On the ground, the kind of issues the people are facing, how can one talk about caste without addressing these issues?" he said.
"Let's talk about midday meals, let's talk about the Aajeevika (scheme), let's talk about women, once the fabled constituency of Nitish Kumar... There is a lot of unrest among women… If Jharkhand can pay Rs 2,500, why not Bihar?" he asked.
"Mere talk of engineering doesn't satisfy people anymore, they want more. In this situation, I don't see the caste equation working," he said.
Bhattacharya also slammed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for not increasing reservation and questioned why the "double-engine" government could not provide the promised 65 per cent quota.
The NDA has 138 MLAs in the 243-member Assembly. The BJP has 84 members, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) 48, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) four and Independents two.
The opposition has a strength of 104 MLAs -- the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) 72, Congress 17, CPI(ML) Liberation 11, and the CPI and the CPI(M) two each.
The Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has one MLA.
Assembly elections in Bihar are due later this year.
