Rival political parties and their top leaders were busy wooing voters until the last hours on Monday as the hectic campaign for 71 Assembly constituencies across six districts of Bihar that will vote on October 28 in the first phase of the Assembly elections ended with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress-Left alliance seemingly giving a tough challenge to the BJP-JD(U)-led ruling National Democratic alliance (NDA).
The Opposition RJD is contesting 42 seats — the most number of seats in the first phase of polling by any party followed by JD(U) 35, BJP 29, Congress 21 and the Left parties 8.
In the 2015 Bihar Assembly poll, 49 Assembly segments of 10 districts went to poll in the first phase that witnessed a turnout of 57 per cent.
The political fortunes of over half-a-dozen Cabinet ministers in the Nitish dispensation like Prem Kumar, Ram Narayan Mandal, Jai Kumar Singh, Krishna Nandan Verma, Shailesh Kumar, Santosh Nirala, Vijay Kumar Sinha and Brij Kishore Bind will be decided in this phase. So will be the fate of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is contesting from Imamganj Assembly constituency as an NDA candidate this time round.
The war of words between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Opposition RJD leader Tejashwi has already become acrimonious in the last few days with the two rivals exchanging barbs over unemployment, law and order and development issues.
Kumar stepped up attacks against the RJD by accusing it of taking the State backwards and failing to maintain law and order and exhorting people not to bring back the old days when kidnappings, murders and massacres were commonplace.
Tejashwi, whose public rallies attracted huge crowds, did not spare Kumar saying, “Nitish has no more energy left and people are tired of listening to his hackneyed and boring speeches. A tired Nitish is running away from reality, reasoning and facts. He is now looking at the stale pages of history by ruining the present and future of millions of youths.”
The role of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) under Chirag Paswan has added another flavour in the polls with the party, which is not part of the NDA now, is opposing JD(U) while backing the BJP, giving rise to speculation whether it is playing as a B-team of the BJP with an eye on the post-poll scenario.
The LJP, which is contesting 143 seats in Bihar, is fighting the first phase with the slogan “BJP se bair nahin, Nitish teri khair nahin”. Its main tagline for campaign is “Bihar First, Bihari First”.
He has also been dishing out the threat of putting Nitish behind the bars on charges of corruption if his party came to power in the State.
In a poll which is increasingly turning acerbic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the main face of the NDA alliance, addressed three rallies and sought to attract voters by saying the NDA under Kumar, ended “jungle-raj” of RJD rule and developed Bihar where there is “no need for lantern (RJD’s poll symbol) as entire State is electrified”.
Modi has sought to score over the Opposition by citing Central Government’s act of abrogating Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir and thus bringing the State in the “national mainstream”. The BJP “Opposition parties dare say they will bring it back and still want votes in Bihar”, he said.
BJP’s poll promise of providng “free-vaccine” hogged much limelight in the campaign so far and came for heavy criticism from the RJD and Congress with Rahul Gandhi describing it as yet “another jumla” of the Prime Minister. The Opposition also sought to know as to how can BJP make promise for a vaccine which is yet to come into existence.
As against the NDA’s manifesto, the RJD promised that it would create 10 lakh jobs and better health infrastructure in Bihar.
Congress leader Rahul attacked BJP’s failure in providing security to women in the country citing example of the Harthras rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in the BJP-ruled UP as BJP accused him of being selective and not making any comments on atrocities against women in Congress-run Rajasthan and Punjab.
The BJP went to the extent of saying “Yadav brothers” were not questioning their alliance partner on rape incidents in the Congress-ruled States as they themselves were once reportedly accused of molestation.
The conclusion of the first-phase of campaign turned aggressive in the dying moments with top political leaders addressing as many public rallies as the time and their schedule allowed them.
