In Bihar’s relentlessly aggressive politics, chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar and his party remained compulsive winners throughout 2011 as they both kept getting stronger mainly by the numerous defections from the Opposition parties, restraining the rebels and starting populist programmes.
In a year that saw several scams and controversies periodically embarrassing the JD(U)-BJP coalition government led by Mr Kumar, a severely weakened Opposition with its dwindling numerical strength in the Assembly failed to derive any substantial mileage.
As the ruling NDA consolidated itself further, the formerly powerful Opposition parties like Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP were largely left whimpering about the government’s alleged mistakes and Mr Kumar’s “rising arrogance”.
Both politically and in governance, Mr Kumar managed to amplify his profile in the unmistakable direction of acquiring a suitably large and noticeable national eminence by swiftly building upon the massive electoral success of 2010.
As his main opponents, Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan, clung to the shadows of their past strengths, a tireless Mr Kumar boldly experimented with new ideas and went on scoring points.
With his government’s buzzword of “zero tolerance of corruption”, Mr Kumar abolished the legislators’ local area development (LAD) funds and used the Bihar Special Courts Act 2009, enacted by his government, to confiscate allegedly ill-gotten properties of corrupt officials and opened two schools in such properties.