The campaigning for the third
phase of Bihar assembly elections ended at 6 pm on Thursday evening. Polling
will be held for 78 seats in the third and final phase on November 7.
Earlier on October 28, votes were
cast for 71 seats in the first phase and 94 seats in the second phase on
November 3. The counting of votes will be done on 10 November.
The Election Commission had
announced the dates for the election on 25 September. From then on, all parties
started campaigning loudly.
The NDA coalition comprising the
Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP), Janata Dal United (JDU), Hindustani Awam Morcha
(WE) and Vikas Insan Party (VIP) was led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) , The
responsibility of publicizing the grand alliance of the Congress and the Left
parties was done by Tejashwi Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of the
Grand Alliance and Rahul Gandhi of the Congress.
During the Corona epidemic, Bihar
became the first state in the country where assembly elections are being held.
Elections have been conducted in many countries of the world during Corona, but
no state or country has elections as big as Bihar with more than seven crore
voters.
The Election Commission has
definitely issued guidelines for conducting the elections, but during the
entire campaign, it is hardly felt that from the activists and general
supporters to the leaders at some places, they have completely followed the
guidelines, but in many places they are openly She appeared flying.
Although there is no official
information about whether or not this resulted in an increase in corona
infection.
After almost three decades in
Bihar, there was an election in which Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad
Yadav were not seen.
Ram Vilas Paswan died in Delhi on
October 8 after an illness.
Sharad Yadav is also ill in Delhi
and Lalu Yadav is being sentenced in a Ranchi jail after being found guilty in
the fodder scam case.
In Lalu Prasad's absence, his
younger son and former Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has replaced him and he is
making all the decisions himself.
Ramvilas Paswan has been replaced
by his son Chirag Paswan and emerged as the lone face of the party.
While maintaining Sharad Yadav's
relationship with Bihar, his daughter Subhashini Yadav is contesting from the
Bihariganj seat of Madhepura.
Sharad Yadav has been the Lok
Sabha MP from Madhepura many times, along with being the president of JDU and
once he defeated Lalu Prasad from Madhepura.
Today, his daughter Lalu Prasad's
own party is contesting on Congress ticket with the support of RJD.
Rahul Gandhi also came to
Madhepura to promote Subhashini and addressed Sharad Yadav as his mentor and
Subhashini as his sister.
'The last election of Mandal
politics'
The resentment of Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar was clearly visible among the people and this is perhaps the
reason why absurd incidents were seen in his election meetings and for the
first time Nitish was seen losing his patience in public.
Nitish Kumar, who was the Chief
Minister of Bihar for the last 15 years, was successful in creating the image
of a 'Good Governance Babu' in his first term (2005-2010) with the help of
development work and media.
But this time during the election
campaign, the most angry people were seen by them. Chandra Rai, son of Lalu
Prasad and son of former Chief Minister Daroga Rai, is contesting from Parsa
seat in Chhapra on a JDU ticket.
Nitish Kumar was addressing a
gathering for his promotion. Meanwhile, some people started raising slogans of
Lalu Zindabad. Nitish was so angry that he said, "Are you talking
nonsense. Don't make all this noise here. If you don't want to vote, don't give
up."
Nitish Kumar Murdabad slogans
were raised at many places in Nitish's meetings, and onions were thrown at him
at an election meeting in Madhubani. Nitish's tongue slipped in several
meetings and he launched personal attacks on Tejashwi Yadav and his family.
During a rally in Hajipur, Nitish
Kumar had said, "Those people who are producing eight to nine children,
what will those people develop?"
For the first time in his
political career, Nitish Kumar appeared on the backfoot and during the campaign
in Purnia's Dhamdaha on the last day of campaigning, he said that this is his
last election. That is why some political analysts are calling it the last
election of Mandal politics in Bihar.
If it is being called the last
election of Mandal politics, then perhaps one of the reasons for this is that in
this election, two young faces Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan are getting
ready from their father's shadow and preparing political ground for themselves.
Chirag Paswan
First thing of Chirag Paswan
Chirag Paswan is the president of his father's party, Lok Janshakti Party and
is also a Lok Sabha MP. But so far his identity is nothing more than Ram Vilas
Paswan's son.
This time he has taken a decision
that can be called a political gamble. He calls himself Hanuman of Narendra
Modi, but out of the NDA in Bihar, he not only keeps attacking Nitish Kumar
every day but has also made his candidates against their candidates.
They are saying that their only
aim is to remove Nitish Kumar from power and to form a government of BJP-LJP
alliance. Some people are saying that they are doing this at the behest of the
BJP's top leadership, but themselves and the BJP dismiss these allegations.
But there are many candidates
fighting on his party's ticket who were earlier BJP Has been an MLA or an
active party worker.
It will be known how his party's
performance will be on November 10, but experts say that during the first and
second phase of voting, many supporters of BJP met their party's candidate
instead of JDU.
Experts say that if the LJP
candidate is successful only in defeating the JDU candidate, then Chirag
Paswan's aim will be fulfilled and he can succeed in proving himself a leader.
Tejashwi Yadav
In this election, if any one
person has emerged on the political scene quickly, then it is Tejashwi Yadav.
Tejashwi Yadav is a former Deputy
Chief Minister, but like Chirag, he is still not considered anything more than
Lalu Prasad's son.
In 2015, he became the Deputy
Chief Minister directly by winning elections at the age of 26, but Lalu Prasad
was active in that election. After Lalu's prison, Tejashwi took over the entire
command of the party and in this election he has emerged completely like a
leader.
Tejashwi has made unemployment
the biggest issue in this election only on his own. First of all, he said that
if his government is formed then on the very first day he will announce 10 lakh
government jobs.
The BJP and Nitish Kumar first
rejected their claim saying that the state does not have enough money to
provide jobs, but promised to provide 19 lakhs of employment after a few days.
A large crowd appeared in his meetings and he was seen communicating with a
large number of youth.
The BJP and Nitish launched
several attacks on them and tried to bring different issues, but Tejashwi stood
by his issue and its effect showed that there was no particular resentment for
Tejashwi even among the pro-NDA youth.
After social justice, he now
talked about economic justice, which means more and more jobs and better
economy. Tejashwi kept restraint on his language during this entire campaign
and he did not lose his temper over Nitish's many personal statements, except
Babu Saheb's statement in Aurangabad only once.
Tejaswi tried his best not to
consider him a leader of the Yadavs and the Muslims only. His father Lalu
Prasad made the famous statement of 'Mai (Muslims and Yadavs' kindness'), but
Tejashwi did not fall into this trap and kept saying during the campaign that
his party was A to Z i.e. everyone's party from the beginning. .
By saying this, he does not know
how much he will be able to pull his opponents towards him, but it is so sure
that the anger that was present against Lalu Prasad in those social groups, the
anger may not have been shown on the ground against the stunning.
Will the Grand Alliance be
shattered?
It was being said about the Grand
Alliance that their alliance will not be possible and these people will split
up.
But no differences emerged
regarding seat-sharing in the Grand Alliance and a coalition of RJD, Congress
and Left parties has been formed which won or lost elections, but is the most
natural alliance against BJP on ideological level.
The Left parties are finding new
possibilities for themselves in Bihar politics after years. Currently, the
CPI-ML has three MLAs in the Bihar Legislative Assembly while the CPI and CPM
do not have a single MLA.
Earlier in 1995, Lalu Prasad
contested with CPI and CPM while CPI-ML Nitish Kumar's Samata was with the
party at that time.
After almost 25 years, all the
left parties are unitedly fighting elections together with the RJD and the
Congress and its effect is clearly visible on the ground.
The Left parties are in the
electoral fray for 29 seats, but some of their supporters are seen in every
seat of the state, which seems to benefit the Left parties and the Grand
Alliance.
But on the one hand, while there
was an extreme anger against Nitish, the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi was seen as less-o-besh earlier. It is also an irony that if Nitish is in
power in Bihar for the last 15 years, BJP is also an equal partner in power
with Nitish.
But it is Modi's charisma or
media management, but it is so important that the anti-incumbency resentment
among the common people is only from Nitish and no particular resentment about
BJP was seen among the common people.
In many places, BJP supporters
and voters were also found saying that they want to replace Nitish and form a
BJP government.
Prime Minister Modi's revenge
style
Prime Minister Narendra Modi came
to Bihar four times to campaign and during this time he held a total of 12
rallies.
Starting from Sasaram on 23
October, he held the last rally in Saharsa on 3 November. Modi did mention
Article 370 at Sasaram's rally, Ram temple at Darbhanga, Pulwama at Chapra and
'Jai Shri Ram' at Araria and Saharsa on the last day, but Modi is known for his
aggressive and Hindutva language elections in Bihar. That form did not show
during the campaign.
He certainly sought votes from
the people in the name of the work done by the central and state government,
but the main point of his speech was the alleged 'Jungle Raj' and 'Double Crown
Prince'.
From 1990 to 2005, when Lalu
Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi were the Chief Ministers of Bihar, a section of
the media called it 'Jungle Raj'. The pair of Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi
were ridiculed by Modi as 'double prince'.
57 percent of people in Bihar
state are under 25 years of age.
A party which has been in power
at the Center for six years, has been a partner of power in the state of Bihar
for 15 years (except only from November 2015 to July 2017), which has the
support of more than three hundred MPs and has government in about 20 states. ,
Instead of any roadmap or vision document of their better future, the head of
the youth asked him to vote for them by fearing the earlier governments.
Communal issues could not
dominate the elections. Union Home Minister and BJP leader Nityananda said in
an election meeting in Mahanar of Vaishali district that if the Grand Alliance
government is formed then the 'terrorists' of Kashmir will take shelter here.
However, the party later defended him and said that his statement was being
manipulated.
UP Chief Minister Adityanath
talked about Ram temple and Kashmir and said on the last day that the intruders
will be taken out after the NDA government is formed. Union Minister Giriraj
Singh said that in Bihar too, a law should be made on the so-called
'love-jihad'. But in spite of all this, all this could not become an electoral
issue in the eyes of the common voter.
Nitish missing from Modi's
platform
When the Prime Minister's visit
to Bihar was announced, it was also said at that time that Nitish Kumar would
also share the stage in all the 12 rallies of Modi. In the initial rallies,
Nitish Kumar had also shared the stage with him but on the last day Nitish did
not appear with Modi in Araria and Saharsa.
There has been no response from
both the parties on this. But people who keep an eye on the politics of Bihar
are looking at it from a different perspective.
Elections are to be held in
Seemanchal area in the third phase, where a large population of Muslims lives.
Some say it was a political ploy.
Nitish wants to woo the Muslim
voters, while Modi wanted to mobilize the Hindu voters in favor of the NDA, so
he did not deliberately share the stage together.
People cite this, saying that
Yogi Adityanath, referring to the CAA and NRC in Katihar, said that the
infiltrators will be taken out after the NDA government is formed in Bihar.
In Kishanganj adjoining Katihar,
Nitish Kumar rejected Yogi Adityanath's talk in his election meeting and said
that there is no need for anyone to get our people out of the country.
Why did Amit Shah not participate
in the election campaign
But Union Home Minister Amit Shah
did not appear in this entire election campaign.
Amit Shah himself had told a
private TV channel that he has now fully recovered from Corona and will go for
campaigning in Bihar after October 25, but he did not hold a single rally.
He was involved in ticket
distribution and all the big decisions related to Bihar. Also went on a two-day
tour of West Bengal, but Bihar did not come to campaign. There is no statement
about this from the party's side.
Political analysts believe that
BJP and Nitish Kumar did not want them to be brought forward in Bihar due to
their image created due to a law like CAA-NRC.
But some people believe that they
did not come due to mutual factionalism of BJP. The current BJP president JP
Nadda took charge in January and after that the party lost in the assembly
elections held in Delhi and Jharkhand.
Analysts say that in such a
situation, if Bihar also comes out of BJP's hand, then the party's defeat in
three consecutive assembly can be blamed on Nadda's head.
