Patna, Aug. 1: The Nitish Kumar government's Badh Chala Bihar campaign, an ambitious citizen-backed initiative to draft a vision document for the state's development over the next 10 years, seems to be losing steam while the JDU's own campaign is on track.

Either because of repeated attacks from the Opposition or slackness by the government and private agencies looking after its execution, progress of the campaign has been slow, considering it started two months ago and less than a month remains before the model code of conduct for the Assembly elections sets in.

Though Janbhagidari trucks continue to roll through the villages, no audio-visual messages related to Nitish or his ministerial colleagues are being played because of a Patna High Court directive.

"The trucks are running as usual but no audio-visual messages or posters showing the chief minister's or any minister's face are there. The Janbhagidari trucks have touched 20,000 of 40,000 targeted villages to collect data on development aspirations of the citizenry," said an official in the information and public relations department (IPRD). In Patna district, the trucks had covered 750 of the targeted 1,400 villages, sources said.

This is not the first time the Janbhagidari programme is facing the prohibition heat. Earlier, on June 10, the Election Commission had imposed a ban on the programme after the BJP alleged violation of the model code of conduct for Legislative Council elections. The ban was lifted after the poll code was lifted on July 10.

But then the high court objected to the state leadership's involvement in the Badh Chala Bihar campaign.

This has also cast a shadow on Udghosh, which envisages organising large public meetings between the state leadership and special interest groups like shiksha mitras, anganwadi workers and self-help group representatives to understand their aspirations. Sources claimed no steps are being taken to hold any such meetings as of now.

Janbhagidari and Udghosh apart, the other casualty was the first seminar under "Bihar Development Dialogues", which could not be held in Patna on July 29. In fact, not a single event has taken place over the past two months under other components of this campaign like Gaurav Goshthi, Bihar Lecture Series, Leader's Memoirs and Samvad.

Janbhagidari apart, Jigyasa seems to be the only other programme in which progress is visible on the ground. Jigyasa is basically a paper-writing competition involving academia, students and research scholars to conduct a primary research tour across the state and present their findings in a white paper. A total of 26 teams, comprising five members each, have already been short-listed.

"Universities and colleges from different states were approached to invite students and researchers to participate in Jigyasa. The selection has been done and the teams are expected to commence their field study by visiting different districts in Bihar within a day or two," said the IPRD official.

Spotlight on JDU

The chief minister had launched the Badh Chala Bihar Bihar-2025 campaign in Patna on June 9. Claimed to be the world's largest inclusive governance programme, it is designed and being executed by Citizen Alliance Pvt. Ltd, a firm floated by political strategist Prashant Kishor, under contract with the state IPRD. Apart from Citizen Alliance, Prashant has raised another army of researchers, data crunchers, copywriters and publicists, who together call themselves Indian People's Action Committee (IPAC).

The life-sized posters showing Nitish's face with slogans such as Aage Badhta Rahe Bihar, Fir Ek Baar Nitish Kumar or Bihar Me Bahaar Ho, Nitishey Kumar Ho or the latest in the series Jhanse Me Na Aaenge, Nitish Ko Jitayenge are all the IPAC's handiwork. Few other activities include Parche Pe Charcha and Ghar-Ghar Dastak, where the JDU leadership interacts with the electorate.

Political observers say the focus on the JDU campaign, centered around Nitish's leadership, has somewhere diverted attention from the Badh Chala Bihar campaign.

"Badh Chala Bihar is the first-ever initiative in India envisaging people's participation in framing government's mandate. However, the programme seems to have somewhere fallen prey to bureaucratic indifference to people-centric activities. It is often observed that when common people are the centre of any policy-formation strategy, the bureaucracy does not show much interest. The Nitish campaign, on the other hand, is driven by political factors and is bound to be more aggressive, given the proximity to the upcoming state elections," said D.M. Diwakar, director at AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences.