“There is rumour doing rounds that at least five ministers of the JD(U) government have been trapped in sting operations taking bribe which speaks volume of corruption under the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s rule in Bihar”, he said, and pitched for a CBI probe saying that the state agencies were incapable of handling the corruption slur on the outgoing government. “I particularly urge my young friends to cast their vote”, Modi wrote on his Twitter account. Although Modi’s party scored a landslide victory in last year’s national elections – helped by a favorable outcome in 22 of the 40 seats in Bihar – his popularity is believed to have waned over the past few months.
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But his government has been unable to push promised reforms past India’s Upper House of Parliament, where it lacks a majority, making success in state elections crucial.
“The BJP sacrificed power for stability in Bihar by appointing Nitish Kumar as chief minister in 2005 despite winning more seats as compared to JD-U”, Singh said. The first is the shift of a sizeable section of Koeri voters to the Nitish-led Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and the second is the notable movement of the Mallah voters towards the BJP-led NDA.
– For one of our most reliable tools to gauge general trends of an election, we usually measure “Swing Polling Booths” as an important metric to understand voter behavior in an electoral scenario. He alleged that the ‘Mahaswarthbandan’ had only one job to do i.e., divide the state on the grounds of caste and vote bank politics. The two main campaigners of the Bihar Grand Alliance drew an impressive crowd of nearly equal size, but they talked about completely different things even as both countered Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their own way.
The BJP’s secret weapon is Mr Jitan Ram Manjhi, who comes from a lower caste known for eating rats.
The delegation, led by Union Minister and senior BJP leader Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, also complained against conspiracy to obstruct rallies and other election programmes of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders in Bihar. Almost 10 million voters are eligible to vote in the first phase and there are 583 candidates.
Sources said the JDU was looking for an alternative candidate to replace Kushwaha at Pipra, an Assembly constituency in East Champaran district, which votes in the fourth phase on November 1.
The elections are being held Monday in 49 constituencies in the first of five phases of voting for the state’s legislative assembly.
Among the major changes being blocked by opposition parties are a business-friendly land purchase law and the biggest overhaul of taxes since independence from Britain in 1947.
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The BJP workers also feel that working for panchayat elections is a better deal than campaigning in Bihar polls.
