Bihar at takeoff stage… industrialisation next: JD(U)'s Sanjay Jha

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On October 12, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) unveiled a seat-sharing formula in Bihar that placed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United) on equal footing — 101 seats each out of the total 243 — while allotting 29 seats to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and six apiece to others. In the 2020 Assembly election, JD(U) had contested 115 seats. In a telephonic interview from Darbhanga, Sanjay Jha, national working president, JD(U), tells Aditi Phadnis that his party is still fighting fit and how Bihar is headed for new horizons. Edited excerpts:

 

Seat allocation for the Bihar polls is over and now candidates are ready to campaign in their allotted constituencies. Do you think your party has conceded too much, given that it is running the government in Bihar?  

An important basis of seat allocation was the 2024 Lok Sabha polls (BJP contested 17 and JD(U) 16 of Bihar’s 40 seats, with other NDA partners contesting the rest). It was a factor we could not ignore while deciding the numbers each party should get. 

Every party feels that if it was given more seats, it will be able to do better. But once the matter is settled, we have to put everything we have into winning. 

You don’t feel that the disgruntlement in your party over the seats given to Paswan’s LJP (RV) could sabotage the coalition? 

There will be no effect on the ground. We sat together and discussed seat allocation.It is not the result of some fiat from somewhere.  

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Paswan contested as an alliance partner. In the 2020 Assembly election, he was not part of the NDA. Now he is. So, the alliance, as a whole, will work to achieve victory.   

Isn’t it true that in the last Assembly polls Paswan played a negative role, damaging JD(U) the most? And now you have been forced to yield space to his party? 

In the public domain, many things are said... Why Paswan, even BJP leaders said many things. And yes, it caused confusion that was detrimental to the JD(U). But we have travelled far beyond that… Those things are a matter of history now. 

In coming together with the BJP, how much did JD(U) have to compromise on its own agenda? 

If we had an agenda that was not different from them, we would all be in the same party. Every party has its own priorities and beliefs. And this is not the first time we are aligning with the BJP. We’ve been partners for 30 years, barring a few in between. So, we know them, they know us. 

If you come to power as an alliance, what is your governance and administration agenda? 

Bihar is at a takeoff stage. When Nitish (Kumar) ji first became chief minister, even the basics were not there on the ground. It was Business Standard that had reported about the on-ground situation — the absence of law and order, the breakdown of administration, the absence of infrastructure… 

Now the roads in Bihar are as good as any other Indian state. The power sector has improved.  Connectivity, law and order, gender justice… Bihar now stands for all these things that were totally absent when it was under jungle raj. And it helps that we are getting constructive cooperation from the Centre. It is true that we wanted to be named a special category state. But that category itself has been abolished. Despite that, we are getting funding and support from the Centre. 

The next stage is the industrialisation of Bihar, getting investment and setting up industries that provide employment. The Bihar government is steadily acquiring land to give to industry. We are even ready to provide free land to investors if it yields significant employment. In the next five years, industrial development is going to get a major thrust. 

Skill development is also going to be a priority. We have a young population. The youngsters of Bihar are bright and enterprising, they work hard. If we can launch a massive skilling programme, they can be second to none. 

All this can come to nought without Nitish Kumar. And there seems to be no succession plan… 

We are a socialist party, possibly the only socialist party in India. The others are family parties. Nitish Kumar is India’s only socialist leader heading a government. He is the longest serving CM in Bihar. He has never involved his family in the government. He will take our party and Bihar to new heights as we contest the election under his leadership. 

Given that your party is so committed to issues of social justice, isn’t the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) a better fit for you than  the BJP?

 

Our respective social agendas never gelled. The JD(U) was a party created against the misdeeds of the RJD leadership. There was a time when things were so bad in Bihar, you were ashamed to call yourself a Bihari. All that changed in 1994. 

Yes, we were together with the RJD for a few years. But six months into the alliance, I remember Nitish ji saying the RJD cannot change. It took years to build the state. If we had continued in the alliance with the RJD, all that would have been torn down in six months.  

In 2005, with the help of the BJP and Sushil Modi, Bihar consolidated its resurgence. What is social justice? It certainly is not empowering one family… 

Jan Suraaj led by Prashant Kishor is the newest kid on the block. It is saying that  if the contest is close, it will be the one to  gain the most from arbitrage…

 

The results will be out on November 14. Let us see. Bipolar politics has been a tradition in Bihar. I don’t see any deviation from that.