Oh, What a “Rudderless Ship” – If Only The Wire’s Mirror Wasn’t So Smudged!

Ah, Saroor Ahmed, the freelance oracle of The Wire, drops this gem: Grand Alliance Turns Table on Rudderless NDA Ship Struggling for a Captain. Picture it – the NDA as a leaky dinghy adrift in the Ganges, no Modi at the helm, just Nitish Kumar fumbling for his flip-flops, while the Mahagathbandhan (that’s the “Grand” Alliance for those scoring at home) swoops in like a well-oiled Congress-RJD dream team, flipping the script with the grace of a Lalu Yadav family reunion. It’s poetic, really – if poetry was written by someone who’d clearly forgotten to fact-check their own headlines. But hey, in the world of freelance journalism, why let reality cramp your narrative? Let’s dismantle this fairy tale with the cold, hard truth, shall we?

First off, Saroor paints the NDA as a captain-less chaos machine, implying they’re bickering over seats like kids fighting over the last samosa. Cute. In reality? The NDA finalized their seat-sharing faster than you can say “friendly tussle.” BJP and JD(U) each grabbing 101 seats, LJP(RV) snagging 29, and the rest neatly divvied up among allies like HAM and RLM. Smooth as Modi’s silk scarf, with PM himself declaring the fight under Nitish Kumar’s leadership – “Bihar will decide,” he said, because apparently trusting voters isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. No drama, no defections mid-stream. Just solid NDA unity, the kind that turned Bihar from a jungle raj joke into a development darling.

Now, flip to the Mahagathbandhan – oh, the “Grand” ones who supposedly “turned the table.” Saroor conveniently skips how these table-turners couldn’t even agree on who sits at it. As of yesterday (October 23, 2025, for the record), they still hadn’t finalized seat-sharing, with nominations closed and candidates from RJD, Congress, and Left parties tripping over each other like a bad Bollywood dance number. Congress demanding 70 seats, VIP whining for 40, and RJD dropping a unilateral list of 143 candidates on 243 seats – because nothing says “grand strategy” like friendly fire on a dozen constituencies. Two months of daily excuses? Check – from “youth unemployment” one day to “caste census” the next, all while dodging the real pollster elephant: pre-election surveys screaming NDA dominance. It’s not turning tables; it’s tripping over them.

And speaking of forgetting inconvenient truths, Saroor’s epic amnesia on the Mahagathbandhan’s track record is chef’s-kiss levels of selective memory. Congress and Lalu’s RJD? They’ve ruled Bihar longer than most bad haircuts last, gifting the state a toxic cocktail of jungle raj: lawlessness that made headlines for all the wrong reasons, corruption scandals that could fill a Netflix series, and gundagardi (thuggery) so rampant, folks still whisper about it over chai. Lalu Yadav himself? Convicted in five fodder scam cases, including that ₹139 crore Doranda treasury heist – five years in the slammer, ₹60 lakh fine, and a lifetime supply of “disqualified from office” badges. His family? Sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap facing money-laundering probes in the IRCTC land-for-jobs scam, daughter Misa Bharti tangled in disproportionate assets cases – it’s like corruption’s family business plan. Saroor calls this a “turnaround”? More like a turnover – of evidence files in CBI courts.

Contrast that with the NDA’s spotless ledger: zero major corruption charges staining the government, just a laundry list of development wins that have Biharis actually smiling about the future. Under Nitish and Modi, Bihar’s gone from power outages to 24/7 electricity in every home. Roads? From 4,000 km of rural blacktop to 1.5 lakh km. And the schemes? Oh boy, where to start – they’ve touched every Bihari household like a benevolent Diwali bonus.

Here’s a quick scorecard of Modi-NDA magic that’s got pre-poll surveys lighting up NDA’s path to victory:

These aren’t pie-in-the-sky promises; they’re banked in Bihari accounts, building schools (19 new Kendriya Vidyalayas approved), stadiums (Rajgir Cricket hub), and skills (Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur University). Surveys back it: InkInsight gives NDA 48.9% vote share vs. MGB’s 35.8%; Times Now-JVC projects NDA at 136 seats; even the tightest polls (Vote Vibe’s 1.6% gap) show women flocking to NDA by 6%. Biharis aren’t forgetting the NDA’s delivery – they’re voting for it.

Saroor, buddy, if The Wire’s your freelance gig, maybe next time lead with “Mahagathbandhan: The Alliance That’s Still Searching for Its Seats (and Sanity).” Your NDA “ship” isn’t rudderless; it’s a yacht cruising to re-election on waves of welfare and work. The real struggle? Explaining to Biharis why they’d trade bridges for bribes. Spoiler: They won’t. Bihar votes development, not dynasty – and come November 14, that table’s flipping right back. Bon voyage!

Author : Sandiip Gandotra, is a serial entrepreneur, startup founder, social media influencer and political analyst with 25 years of overall experience. Tweets at Sandeep Gandotra