The first Bihar governments in 1937 and 1946 were led by two eminent leaders Sri Babu (Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha) and Anugrah Babu (Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha) who were men of unimpeachable integrity and great public spirit.[66] They ran an exemplary government in Bihar.[66] Bihar was rated as the best administered among the states in the country at that time.[67]
Even after independence, when India was falling into an autocratic rule during the regime of Indira Gandhi, the main thrust to the movement to hold elections came from Bihar under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. The airport of Patna is also named after him. This resulted in two things:
Bihar gained an anti-establishment image. The establishment-oriented press often projected the state as indiscipline and anarchy.
As a result, the identity of Bihar, representing a glorious past, was lost. Its voice often used to get lost in the din of regional clamor of other states, specially the linguistic states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
Since the regional identity was slowly getting sidelined, its place was taken up by caste based politics, power initially being in the hands of the Kayastha, Rajput,and Brahmin . After Independence, the power was shared by the two great Gandhians Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha, who later became the first chief minister of Bihar and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, who decidedly was next to him in the cabinet and served as the first deputy chief minister cum Finance Minister of Bihar.In the late 60s, the death of Mr. Lalit Narayan Mishra, the Indian Railway minister (who was killed by a hand grenade attack for which Central leadership is blamed most of the time) pronounced the end of indigenous work oriented mass leaders. For two decades, the Congress ruled the state with the help of puppet chief ministries hand in glove with the central government (Mrs. Indira Gandhi ignoring the welfare of the people of the state. It was at this time that Chandrashekhar Singh became the Chief Minister. It was the time when a prominent leader like Satyendra Narayan Sinha took sides with the Janata Party and deserted congress from where his political roots originated, following the ideological differences with the congress. Idealism did assert itself in the politics from time to time, viz, 1977 when a wave defeated the entrenched Congress Party and then again in 1989 when Janata Dal came to power on an anti corruption wave. In between, the socialist movement tried to break the stranglehold of the status quoits under the leadership of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha and Karpoori Thakur. Unfortunately, this could not flourish, partly due to the impractical idealism of these leaders and partly due to the machinations of the central leaders of the Congress Party who felt threatened by a large politically aware state. Communist Party in Bihar was formed in 1939. The Communist movement in Bihar was led by veteran communist leaders like the venerable Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Indradeep Sinha, Sunil Mukherjee, Jagannath Sarkar, Rahul sanskritayan, Karyanand Sharma and others.,[66]
Communist Party in Bihar was a formidable force. They were in the forefront of all the progressive movements in Bihar. It was Communist Party of Bihar headed by Jagannath Sarkar fought against the "total revolution" of Jaya Prakash Narain.
Janata Dal came to power in the state in 1990 on the back of its victory at the national stage in 1989. Lalu Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister after winning the race of legislative party leadership by a slender margin against Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from the Janata Party and close to eminent Janata Party leaders like Chandrashekhar and S N Sinha. Later, Lalu Prasad Yadav gained popularity with the masses through a series of popular and populist measures. The principled socialists, Nitish Kumar included, gradually left him and Lalu Prasad Yadav by 1995, was both Chief Minister as well as the President of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was a charismatic leader who had the people's support. But he couldn't bring the derailed wagon of development of the state onto the track. When corruption charges got serious, he quit the post of CM but anointed his wife as the CM and ruled through proxy. In this period, the administration deteriorated quickly.
By 2004, 14 years after's Lalu's victory, The Economist magazine said that "Bihar [had] become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronise, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties".[68] In 2005, the World Bank believed that issues faced by the state was "enormous" because of "persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactory infrastructure and weak governance".[69]
In 2005, as disaffection reached a crescendo among the masses including the middle classes, the RJD was voted out of power and Lalu Prasad Yadav lost an election to a coalition headed by his previous ally and now rival Nitish Kumar. Despite the separation of financially richer Jharkhand, Bihar has actually seen more positive growth in recent years under his leadership.
Currently, there are two main political formations: the NDA which comprises Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal led coalition which also has the Indian National Congress. There are myriad other political formations. Ram Vilas Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party is a constituent of the UPA at the centre, but does not see eye to eye with Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD in Bihar. Bihar People's Party is a small political formation in the northern regions. The Communist Party of India had a strong presence in Bihar at one time, but is weakened now. The CPM and Forward Bloc have a minor presence, along with the other extreme Left. In the 2010 state elections Bihar's current Cheif Minister Nitish Kumar led government got thundurous support from public and won 205 seats out of 243 seats. Analysts and even Nitish Kumar's political opponents credit Kumar's excellent pro-public governance centred around development, curb on crime and corruption and given importance of all sections of society.[citation needed] In past 5 years Bihar has done remarkable[peacock term] progress and have implemented many novel ideas, for which it is taken in high steam by other states of India. The recent performance in assembly election and mature voting by people of Bihar, which also saw for the first time in Indian electorates the highest number of female voting, is being called as something to follow all over India to bring political maturity in the nation and improve the quality of governance and politicians by rightfully exercising the democratic rights in true sense. Bihar is credited to set this example. Also after coming to power again in 2010, the current government immedietly statrted its movement against corruption by confiscating properties of corrupt officials and opening schools in them.[citation needed] Simultaneously they introduced Bihar Special Court Act to curb crime.
