According to a Times of India report the survey by the India Policy Foundation (IPF), an RSS organization, titled “Study of process and nature of change in Bihar's Social, Economic and Political Development” has the potential to strain relationship between the two alliance partners in Bihar. After all Nitish Kumar last year made an advertisement showing him shaking hands with the Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, a big issue.

The survey is a set of 34 multiple-choice questions ranging from demerits of the Nitish government to future of Janata Dal (United), Muslims voting for the alliance despite the bogey of RSS and en masse voting pattern among Muslims.

The questionnaire also does a complete profiling of people being interviewed. To be done across the state, the sample size will be 10,000. Rakesh Sinha of IPF claims the survey is academic in nature.
But some of the questions will definitely not meet Nitish’s approval.For instance, there is a question about giving scholarships, jobs and special incentives on the basis of religion. The four choices are:
Such initiatives lead to communalism, is a political compulsion, unfair and fair. On a question about demerits of Nitish's government, the options are: Importance being given to caste equations, no let up
in corruption cases, new schemes to please minorities, disregarding party workers and none of the above.In Bihar’s highly politicized atmosphere, it is unlikely that “none ofthe above” option will be a choice for anyone. Any of the four otheroptions would be bad news for Nitish. Even a question—what do you consider of JD(U)—three of the four options are telling. The options are: It is a democratic party, it is a party based-on caste equations,it is a personality-based party and it is a party with the legacy of
Lohia and Karpoori Thakur.

On BJP’s Bihar unit, the options are: Leadership follows the ideals of RSS, has image like other parties, there is a distance between leaders and cadre, and primacy is given to power. The survey also has a question on the impact of the alliance in Bihar on the future of JD(U). One option is that Muslims will be upset and move on to other political formations. Specific to RSS, there is a question on reasons why despite invoking Sangh's name Muslims could not be dissuaded from voting in favour of the alliance. The options are: At the ground level image of RSS is not what media portrays, state did nothing that can be called anti-Muslim, Muslims do not hate RSS as much as it is thought,Muslims give primacy to governance and last, despite BJP Nitish government did everything for minority appeasement, the daily report said.

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