Why is the Bihar govt tripping up the Voter Adhikar Yatra at the 11th hour?

The 'Gandhi se Ambedkar' march marking the culmination of INDIA bloc's Voter Adhikar Yatra campaign in Bihar was scheduled to begin from Patna's iconic Gandhi Maidan on 1 September, Monday.

The initial plan of the Congress, RJD, Vikassheel Insaan Party, CPI (M-L) Liberation, Samajwadi Party and other allies was to hold a mega rally at Gandhi Maidan — but permission was denied by the authorities.

The plan, therefore, was adapted to a ‘Gandhi se Ambedkar’ march from Gandhi Maidan to the Ambedkar statue near the Patna High Court.

And overnight, there are new roadblocks.

No permission to hold a rally around the statue. No permission, reportedly, for more than 50 people to march beyond 1 kilometre — when there is an excess of 20,000 pairs of feet on the ground for what is, in effect, closer to a 1.5 kilometre distance to walk.

Is the Bihar state government just moving to play best possible defence as the Opposition adapts to flow around the obstacle course being erected?

Who will prove the more nimble in the end — and how combative will things end up becoming on the ground? For, note, the BJP party office is also along the route and it has its workers gathering — clearly bent on barring passage, or, going by the evidence of 29 Friday (when a clash erupted outside the Congress party office, culminating in the vandalisation of the Sadaquat Ashram).

Meanwhile, the Yatra has gathered popular approval and given shape to simmering public discontent under the BJP–JDU leadership, aided by the state’s former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav putting out repeated examples of double voter IDs of BJP leadership in the state.

Earlier this morning, several Congress leaders arrived in Bihar to be greeted by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi — who has been leading the Yatra with the RJD’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Vikassheel Insaan Party leader Mukesh Sahani. Among them were Rajya Sabha LoP and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s deputy leader in Parliament and Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi and former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot.

Also here for the culmination of the Yatra — and possibly initiation of the next leg of the Opposition’s tripartite campaign — are Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, TMC MP Yusuf Pathan and other INDIA bloc leaders. In the past, Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief M.K. Stalin, as well as Kanimozhi; Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also joined the Yatra.

The 14-day, 1,300 km Voter Adhikar Yatra, which set out from Sasaram on 17 August, has passed through 110 assembly constituencies in 25 of the 38 districts of the state, which is headed for assembly elections in October-November. It is the first ‘event’ in the three-part campaign against Vote Chori — as well as underscoring the public dissatisfaction and raising further awareness on the way the Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being conducted, with 65 lakh voters arguably disenfranchised (a matter that is sub judice in the Supreme Court).

The march started with the INDIA bloc leaders offering floral tributes at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Sasaram, and it is thus fitting that today’s final leg begins at the Gandhi Maidan too.

The proposed path of this last bit of the march is meant to pass through S.P. Verma Road, the Dak Bunglow Crossing, Kotwali Thana, Nehru Patah and the Income Tax Roundabout, before culminating at the statue of B.R. Ambedkar near Patna High Court.

How far will it be able to stick to the route, and will it be able to culminate with ahimsa maintained?

For now, as we go to press, the INDIA bloc leaders are getting ready to address from the dais their supporters in the state that was historically the birthplace of Indian democracy.