The much-hyped ‘Har ghar dastak’ (knock on every door), the connect with the masses programme of the Janata Dal United (JDU) has brought home worrying messages for Nitish Kumar.

The much-hyped ‘Har ghar dastak’ (knock on every door), the connect with the masses programme of the Janata Dal United (JDU) has brought home worrying messages for Nitish Kumar.

JDU workers fanned out into the districts for a survey on how the voters perceived Nitish’s party and his performance. The questionnaire they carried contained four simple questions:

1. Has Bihar seen development and change in the last ten years?

2. Did you and those around you benefit from development and change?

3. Do you think this change was made possible by Nitish Kumar?

4. Will you like to elect Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister again?

Given the weakness of the JDU organization structure, party workers couldn’t have knocked every door, but whatever number they notched up was enough to give their bosses furrowed brows.

The response to the first question was overwhelmingly positive. Around 80 per cent respondents said that they had seen development and change in the last decade.

The responses to the next two questions – did you benefit from development and did Nitish make it possible – were also very positive, in the high sixties. But the bottom fell out of the survey when they fourth question – will you reelect Nitish – came up. The percentage fell drastically.

The scientific contradiction in the survey – wherein respondents directly credit Nitish for development and change but don’t want to see him return as Chief Minister – is a political reality that he is having to grapple with following his electoral embrace with Lalu Yadav.

There is a strong recoil from Nitish supporters against the tie-up with Lalu because electing Nitish is electing Lalu who stands for caste divisions and lawlessness. Lalu has not helped by harping on Mandal II in his election speeches.

The negative impact of the company Nitish has chosen was also evident in the India Today–Cicero opinion poll. The poll showed that Nitish Kumar is still the best candidate for Chief Minister but the NDA might just pull off a win.

What was even more troubling for the JDU brass is that most of those who said `no’ in response to question on Nitish’s prospective return were youth and women. And they cut across caste lines. These are aspirational voters, who Nitish had thought to be his caste neutral social constituencies.

Once again, the ground situation reflected the manner in which Lalu was rebuffed by the youth in the audience at the IBN Dialogue Bihar 2.0 programme on September 11. When Lalu asked them if caste mattered to them, fully expecting them to say ‘yes’, the youth shouted back ‘no’. And mostly asked questions of Bihar’s top leaders that pertained to development and change.

Certainly not happy tidings for Nitish after all the good work of two terms, especially the first.