Poll results decoded: Anguished migrants voted against Nitish Kumar, say experts

MUZAFFARPUR: Even though the NDA succeeded in fetching a sizeable number of seats in the Assembly polls, negligence of migrant workers striving to return to their homes in Bihar after the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed had damaged it to such an extent that it lost many of the seats in the areas which had witnessed a large inflow of labourers. 

Locals alleged that initially, CM Nitish Kumar left the migrants unattended and pulled up its socks only after the BJP became active following the pressure.

Political experts said due to the ignorance, the NDA had to lose seats in Shahbad and Bhojpur belts.

“The way migrants were treated by the Nitish government, they definitely didn’t take lightly in the Bihar polls,” said political analyst Law Kumar Mishra.  

The NDA also performed badly in Buxar, Rohtas, Jahanabad, Ramgarh, Mohania and other bordering districts like Gaya, Aurangabad, Sheikhpura and Muzaffarpur, he added.

People in some of the backward districts like Muzaffarpur were also of the the view that Kumar failed on the migrants issue.

“Due to the failure of Nitish Kumar in bringing back the migrants, it became a key issue in the polls which was also encashed by the opposition,” said Ashok Sahi, a resident of Kamtaul village in Muzaffarpur.