What was more damaging for Nitish Kumar were not the incidents of protests themselves, but their projections in the electronic media. Around five regional TV news channels have come up in Bihar and they were covering the Adhikar Yatra of Nitish Kumar widely. Because of the coverage given by TV media, the print media were also forced to follow the news of the protest, though in subdued voice. So far as media projection of Nitish Government has been very positive. It is so much positive that even media people of the state are facing the wrath of general people for not showing the true picture of Bihar, rather reflecting the rosy scene, which suggested that everything was great and beautiful under the Nitish Government and he has turned an unruly backward state as a disciplined and prosperous one.

In personal talk even many senior journalists of the state can be seen unhappy with the pressure fund starved media were facing from the government, which is the main source of advertisement revenue of the newspapers of State, because the Industry and Commerce of Bihar are in such a bad shape that they are not sufficient to give enough ad revenue to the newspapers to survive. On the other hand, the State Government under Nitish Kumar has increased the advertisement fund. This gave the leverage to the Chief Minister to pressurize the newspapers in Bihar to give him better publicity.

In this way Nitish trapped himself in what is called media trap. The more publicity you get, the more publicity you need. The more favorable publicity you get, the more favorable publicity you need. So long Nitish was getting very favorable media coverage, but the Adhikar Yatra proved to be damaging for Nitish Kumar, because he got a very bad projection during this campaign. Before last Assembly elections, Nitish embarked on a Seva Yatra and that was a successful campaign. The campaign of Seva Yatra was so successful that NDA led by Nitish Kumar got more than 80 percent Assembly seats in the 2010 elections. By Adhikar Yatra Nitish was trying to strengthen himself in such a way, that he could fight next Lok Sabha elections from Bihar without aligning with BJP.

It is not a secret that Nitish wants to play a major role in the government formation at centre after next Lok Sabha elections. For that he needs more Lok Sabha MPs from his own party. With the support of BJP, his party has 20 such MPs from Bihar. There are 40 Lok Sabha seats there. In the company of BJP Nitish cannot expect to get more than it, so he was planning to go it alone and fight all the 40 seats of the state. In his Adhikar Yatra he had made his intention clear, when he had announced that he would support any party at the centre, which gives Bihar a special status. He also declared that Bihar with 40 Lok Sabha seats will play the most crucial role at the government formation of the centre, if people of Bihar support him in the struggle of getting special status for his state. It was unfortunate for the CM that when he was making such announcement, UPA government was on a shaky foot after the withdrawal of TMC support by Mamata Banerjee. It gave the impression that Nitish was saying that his party might support the UPA government at the centre at that troubled time..

Whatsoever, with his Adhikar Yatra, Nitish Kumar was trying to create an independent base in Bihar, whereby he could fight all 40 seats of Lok Sabha without the support of BJP. BJP was also aware of the intention of Nitish Kumar. That is the reason why President of the Sate BJP, CP Thakur had to announce that his party was preparing to contest all the 40 seats of Bihar. He also stated in a straightforward way that there was possibility of break down of NDA in Bihar and keeping that possibility in mind his party has to be ready in advance.

Anyway, Adhikar Yatra of Nitish Kumar has flopped miserably. What Nitish was trying from this campaign was to arouse regional feeling among the people of Bihar, because his alliance partner BJP, being a national party, cannot match him in regional rhetoric. That is why CP Thakur was again forced to give statement that if Bihar cannot get special status, it has to progress with its own resources and there is no need to make much hue and cry over the neglect of the state by the centre. BJP was reacting in expected manner, so far as Nitish was concerned, but people of Bihar were not responding to Adhikar Yatra in expected way. Nitish was asking people of his state to fight for the right of State to get special status, but people started fighting Nitish Kumar to get their own rights from the State Government. Para teachers were protesting for their rights to get salary on time and also pay parity with the regular teachers. Students were protesting for their rights of Students Unions elections in Colleges and Universities of Bihar. It is worth mentioning that no Student Union election has taken place in any college or university in Bihar after 1984.

So what Nitish got from his Adhikar Yatra was a bad publicity in electronic media, which percolated to print media as well. This negative publicity of Nitish government has paved way for the success of Bihar Bandh organized jointly by the opposition parties. Though, more red banners and flags could be seen on roads on the day of Bandh, Lalu Yadav had more reasons to smile. Now opposition says that there is jungle raj in Bihar. Has really, the jungle raj returned in Bihar? Those, who still remember the days of Lalu Rabri government, will answer this question in negative, but certainly there is strong anti-incumbency wave against Nitish Kumar in Bihar. He should take it as a warning signal and do the needful. (IPA Service)