2015 Bihar political crisis

There was a political crisis in Bihar state of India during February 2015 over the post of the Chief Minister of Bihar. Incumbent Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi did not vacate the post for former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who wanted to return, resulting in a split in the political party, JD(U). After days, the Governor asked Manjhi to prove majority in house by trust vote. Manjhi quit the post on day of vote and later Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister again on 22 February 2015 ending the crisis.

Background

Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat state, and Nitish Kumar, then chief minister of Bihar state of India had a political rivalry. Modi belonged to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which was the largest party of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), then the chief opposition political group in Parliament of India. Nitish Kumar belonged to Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), a smaller member party of NDA.

Before the 2014 general election, Narendra Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate of NDA. Nitish-led JD(U) opposed the move and broke alliance and left NDA. When the alliance broke, the JD(U) government in Bihar survived by the outside support of other parties and independents.

Bihar

Bihar (/bᵻˈhɑːr/; Hindustani pronunciation: [bɪˈɦaːr]) is a state in East India. It is the 13th largest state of India, with an area of 94,163 km² (36,357 sq mi). The third largest state of India by population, it is also contiguous with Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Bengal to the east, with Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is split by the river Ganges which flows from west to east.

On November 15, 2000, southern Bihar was ceded to form the new state of Jharkhand. Close to 85% of the population lives in villages. Additionally, almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, giving Bihar the highest proportion of young people compared to any other state in India. The official languages of the state are Hindi and Urdu. Other languages commonly used within the state include Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi, Bajjika, and Angika (Maithili being the only one of these to be publicly accepted by the government).

In ancient and classical India, Bihar was considered a centre of power, learning, and culture. From Magadha arose India's first empire, the Maurya empire, as well as one of the world's most widely adhered-to religions, Buddhism. Magadha empires, notably under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, unified large parts of South Asia under a central rule.

Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of Bihar since February 2015. Previously he served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from 2005 to 2014 and served as a minister in the Union Government of India. He belongs to the Janata Dal (United) party. He endeared himself to Biharis, used to low expectations from previous regimes, when as Chief Minister, his socialist policies bore dividends in appointing more than 100,000 school teachers, ensuring that doctors worked in primary health centers, electrification of villages, paving of roads, cutting female illiteracy by half, turning around a lawless state by cracking down on criminals and doubling the income of the average Bihari

On 17 May 2014 he resigned, owning responsibility for his party's poor performance in the 2014 general elections, and was succeeded by Jitan Ram Manjhi. However, he returned to office in February 2015 after a political crisis and won the state elections of November 2015.

Jitan Ram Manjhi

Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 6 October 1944) is an Indian politician from the eastern state of Bihar who served as its 23rd Chief Minister from 20 May 2014 to 20 February 2015. Previously, he had served as minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in Nitish Kumar's cabinet. He has been a minister in several Bihar state governments, under multiple chief ministers like Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Jagannath Mishra, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi.

Manjhi has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly since 1980. He was affiliated with several political parties, Indian National Congress (1980–1990), Janata Dal (1990–1996), Rashtriya Janata Dal (1996–2005) and JD(U) (2005–2015). He was expelled from JD(U) following the February 2015 political crisis and subsequently Jitan Ram Manjhi emerged as a major Dalit face in Bihar. In May 2015, he announced the new political party, Hindustani Awam Morcha. In July 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi was accorded "Z"-plus security cover by the Union Home Ministry.

Social media

Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people or companies to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. These changes are the focus of the emerging field of technoself studies. Social media differ from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality,reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers).