Champaran’s political meaning is wrapped in resistance. For Mahatma Gandhi, it was a site of rural distress, where indigo farmers pushed back against an exploitative system run by the colonial power. Gandhi’s Champaran satyagraha of 1917 marked his emergence as a national leader and the success of his methods. The message resonated widely: pressure from below, aimed directly at a government, could force it to relent.
What is striking is how later-day politics has flipped that script. In today’s Bihar, Champaran is no longer only remembered as a place where people confronted the state. It is also where the state, now led by elected governments, begins its own marches towards the people. The political yatra turns the old logic on its head. Instead of citizens forcing the government to listen, the government reaches first, with officials on alert and a ready story about welfare, delivery and development.
That reversal is visible again with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launching his latest statewide tour, the Samriddhi Yatra, from West Champaran, less than two months after taking oath for the 10th time.
His choice of West Champaran – Chamaparan was divided into two parts, East and West - may also be dictated by the NDA’s good show in the region, but also by an intent to signal a Gandhian impulse to reach out to people first, backed by full administrative force. He was accompanied by three ministerial colleagues from the BJP at the launch of the yatra.
Such an early start suggests the government aims to present itself as attentive, and to sell “samriddhi”, prosperity, as the destination.
The timing makes the yatra more revealing than its branding. A chief minister returning after a big win usually takes a few months to settle in, announce a few policies and bask during the early cushion that comes after an election. Nitish Kumar is cutting that phase short. By starting early, he is moving before goodwill begins to fade and people get restive.
In the process, he has wrong-footed the opposition. After a heavy defeat, parties usually hold back, regroup and choose their fights. The assumption is that protests and street politics will start once the government begins to slip. Nitish has moved first, and he has done it using a method that is usually seen as the opposition’s tool: the road campaign and direct outreach to the public.
The irony is that the winner is now using the mechanics of the challenger, and the challengers often find it difficult to win public sentiment when the same tool has been adopted by those in power. There is a lesson here for both challengers and the elected: Politics cannot be practised only near polls.
Nitish Kumar can do this because the yatra is not new to him. He has used such tours to build an image of endurance, surviving upheavals over the last two decades. By his own count, he has undertaken 16 such journeys in the last 20 years, 15 of them while serving as chief minister. That repeated use explains a lot about his political longevity. Nitish has survived by staying visible, keeping the administration under pressure, and refusing to allow any gap to open up around his leadership.
Starting early also serves another purpose. It helps silence talk about his health and doubts about whether he will complete the full term, because in politics, absence creates speculation. His yatra also comes at a time when the BJP is set to formally anoint Nitin Nabin, a cabinet minister in state government as its national president, a post that raises a leader’s profile nationally. The yatra, then, is also a reminder from Nitish that he remains the main political face of the government, and not a chief minister waiting quietly for others to set the terms.
Nitish’s early move has shaken the main opposition. They too are now preparing their own march against him, after the state budget session. Perhaps, a yatra late.
Bihar was a launchpad for Gandhi’s political journey, the state’s politics draws wider attention because of the mechanics and the message. Jayaprakash Narayan too launched his movement from here. With state’s history of mass movements, Nitish Kumar understands that grammar.
The state’s political class is starting early phase of street politics, and the contest will not be decided by who started first, but by who draws the crowd and controls the mood.
