The Janata Dal (United) [JD (U)] leader Nitish Kumar is the chief ministerial candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Of the 243 Assembly seats, the JD (U) is contesting 138 seats and the BJP is contesting on 105 seats. The fact that the JD (U) is contesting 138 seats means that it is likely to win more seats than the BJP. The wisdom of not projecting anybody as NDA's Chief Ministerial nominee was questionable. This mistake has now been rectified.

Both the parties are contesting the polls together but they have separate manifestos.

Kumar has promised quotas in government jobs to ’Dalit Muslims’ if voted to power in Bihar. Nearly half the rural Muslims and about 45 percent of urban Muslims in Bihar live below the poverty line, according the state minorities commission. JD (U) assures "terror-free and crime-free" within three months of being voted to power, in its manifesto released on January 21, 2005. The manifesto also promised to end anarchy in the field of education to achieve 100 per cent literacy in five years, besides taking proper steps for medicare, particularly for those living below the poverty line.

Earlier National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Legislature Party leader Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the 29th Chief Minister of Bihar on 3rd March 2000. With its own 122 members, the NDA had managed to woo the support of the 12-member JMM and 12 Independents in its list of 146 legislators. The NDA was in minority in the Assembly and when Rashtriya Janata Dal submitted a list of 161 MLAs with its 123 MLAs and support from CPI-M (two), the BSP (five), the Congress (23), one Left-supported candidate and some Independents, Kumar had to resign just after seven days.

Kumar was born in Bakhtiarpur, Patna in 1951. He is a graduate of Bihar College of Engineering Patna. He was in the Steering Committee of Jai Prakash Movement. He was detained in jail in 1974 under M.I.S.A. and also during the Emergency.

He feels that fifteen years of Laloo-Rabri regime has not only put any kind of social and economic development in the state on the back-burner but have turned the entire state into a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

But Kumar’s alliance partner BJP is not much different in harbouring alleged criminals. These include MLAs Nityanand Roy and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MLC Kameshwar Chaupal and Krishna Ballabh Kumar Singh, former chief of the party’s Aurangabad unit.

Roy, MLA from Hajipur, is now behind bars, having been booked under five criminal cases ranging from murder to kidnapping (71/93, 41/01, 417/02, 448/02 and 79/03).

Choubey, BJP Legislature Party leader and candidate from Bhagalpur, has been charge-sheeted in a case (13/92) dated 14 June 1992 lodged under Section 147, 341, 379, 323 of the IPC and 3/10 of the Harijan Atrocities (Prevention) Act. The case concerns forcible occupation of a portion of a flat belonging to a widow, Radha Devi, for well over 15 years until the court came to the latter’s rescue.

Chaupal, who laid the first brick of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, too is charged under the Harijan Atrocities (Prevention) Act, while Singh who was forced to resign as Aurangabad unit chief is a prime accused in the kidnapping of a liquor trader, Govind Prasad Gupta.
On the issue of kidnapping and their release on the eve of election in the state, Kumar says, “The people who are capable of fixing the timing of the release fixed it according to their convenience.”

It remains to be witnessed how the caste logic works in favour of Kumar because almost everyone in Bihar votes on caste lines. Even the Communist Party of India (M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) are endorsing alleged RJD criminals. Traditional Marxism has not survived here and even extreme Leftists act on caste lines.

Promising drastic and constructive land reforms, Kumar said, he would waive land revenue and empower the Panchayati Raj institutions, besides holding elections for the post of Sarpanch.

It would set up a technology mission to find a permanent solution to the recurring floods and drought. In order to respond to the large-scale exodus of workers and entrepreneurs from the State, it would take effective steps to check it by providing fruitful employment to the farmhands.

The civil society in Bihar feels that to attain the growth rate of 10 per cent in coming years, the per capita income will have to grow at an annual rate of eight per cent. Thus, with the national per capita income level of Rs 60,570 in 2019-20, Bihar's state domestic product (SDP) has to grow at a rate of 15 per cent per annum till 2019-20. To attain and sustain this growth rate, there will have to be massive investment in all the sectors of rural infrastructure, education, IT, health, transport, power and water.

The investment to be made annually till 2019-20 in Bihar works out to Rs 38,550 crore to achieve the required growth rate. If Bihar has to grow at this rate, such a huge investment will have to be made annually till 2019-20. The state's development cannot brook delay any further. It is a "now or never" syndrome for the state.

These are some of the pertinent points, which have been prepared by a city-based research institute, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI). ADRI has submitted its eight-page document to all the political parties in Bihar contesting assembly elections urging them to include it in their respective party manifesto for the overall development of Bihar.

The document depicts the present state of affairs in the state:

Bihar's economy

Bihar's economy is mainly rural and about 75 to 80 per cent of the population lives in villages and is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. But the agriculture of the state is itself in a poor shape. During the '90s, the state agricultural output (1993-94 prices) declined by 1.93 per cent, while the national average growth rate was 2.7 per cent.

Floods

Floods are regular features in the state. The total flood-prone area in the state is about 69 lakh hectares, which constitute 17 per cent of the total flood-affected area in the country. About 57 per cent of the flood-affected population of the country lives in Bihar.

Industry

The industrial development is also tardy in the state. About 80 per cent of the industries are closed and the remaining ones are on the verge of closure. As a result of freight equalisation, no investment was made in the state.

Banking

Since nationalisation, the commercial banking sector expanded manifold. Despite this, the state's CD ratio declined from 40 per cent in 1990-91 to 23.2 per cent in 2002-03. There are 31 non-banking financial institutions functioning in the state, but most of them are siphoning off money from the state.

Unemployment

The problem of poverty and unemployment in the state continues to be serious. During 1999-2000, 42.60 per cent of the state population was below the poverty line. The unemployment rate in Bihar was 8.3 per cent more than all India for rural areas and 28.9 per cent in urban areas. After division of the state, the incidence of unemployment has increased.

Infrastructure

Infrastructural facilities like roads, power and irrigation need to be strengthened. Similarly, lack of proper education and training is a serious impediment in the growth of the state. In the absence of education, we cannot think of building a knowledge-based society. In the field of health too, the state lags behind.

The document concludes, good governance will have to be promoted in the state for which improved law and order is a necessary pre-requisite.