Polling in Bihar is scheduled to begin from October 28. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday mocked Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of approving 10 lakh jobs if his party came to power, and asked will money for the purpose come from the jail or will it be done through fake notes.
“These days many people are saying they will give this many jobs. But from where will they bring the money for the purpose? Will they bring it from the jail or will they do it through fake notes, Kumar was quoting as saying by PTI.
Tejashwi had recently announced that if his party-led Grand Alliance was voted to power, 10 lakh government jobs will be sanctioned in the very first cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav hit out at the NDA government saying they have ruined Bihar in 15 years. “This sea of people is standing for change, development, employment and jobs in Bihar. The incompetent NDA govt of 15 years have ruined Bihar. Humbled and grateful to receive rousing reception across the Bihar. Such an electrifying crowd in Goh assembly, Aurangabad,” Tejashwi Yadav said in a tweet.
A total of 1,510 candidates are left in the fray for the second phase of polling to the 94 assembly seats in the state, state Chief Electoral Officer said on Monday. Monday was the last day of the withdrawal of nomination papers.
Deputy CM Sushil Modi with CM Nitish Kumar, at one of their rallies on Sunday. [PTI]
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was on Tuesday attacked with slippers while campaigning for Congress candidate from Kutumba assembly seat in Bihar's Aurangabad district.
With only eight days left for the first phase of Bihar elections, campaigning in the state gained momentum on Tuesday, with BJP heavyweights like Yogi Adityanath and JP Nadda addressing rallies even as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav continued to trade barbs over the track record of each other’s regime.
Interestingly, in what is being seen as an attempt to keep the LJP, which has parted ways with the NDA, in good humour, both Nitish and Tejashwi met Chirag Paswan at the party office in Patna during the ‘shraad’ ceremony of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Paswan and Tejashwi Yadav have so far refrained from attacking each other. More details here.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday mocked Tejashwi Yadav's promise of approving 10 lakh jobs if his party came to power, and asked will money for the purpose come from jail or will it be done through fake notes.
"These days many people are saying they will give this many jobs. But from where will they bring the money for the purpose? Will they bring it from the jail or will they do it through fake notes, Kumar was quoting as saying by PTI.
Tejashwi had recently announced that if his party-led Grand Alliance was voted to power, 10 lakh government jobs will be sanctioned in the very first cabinet meeting.
The Election Commission has barred parties, candidates and others from publishing political advertisements on polling day and a day prior to it the three phases of the Bihar polls unless their contents are pre-certified by screening committees. The same restriction will apply to the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha bypoll in Bihar to be held on November 7.
The Commission has used its constitutional powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to take the decision. The EC had taken such a decision for the first time in the 2015 Bihar polls.
In a letter to Bihar's chief electoral officer on Monday, the poll panel said instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in the print media have been brought to its notice in the past. "Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process. The affected candidates and parties will not have any opportunity of providing clarification/rebuttal in such a scenario," it said. (PTI)
The Press Council of India on Tuesday asked print media to refrain from publishing any article that in any manner predicts the results of the upcoming elections in the state, reported news agency PTI. While considering the communication received from the Election Commission of India, it advises the print media to refrain from publishing any article which in any way predicts the results of the elections during the prohibited period to ensure free, fair and transparent elections, the Press Council of India said in a statement.
The Council said it is of the view that the prediction of results of elections in any form or manner by way of predictions etc. by astrologers, tarot readers, political analysts or by any persons during the prohibited period is violation of the spirit of Section 126A which aims to prevent constituencies still going to polls from being influenced in their voting by such prediction.
"The print media is hereby advised not to publish/publicise any such article of results, during the prohibited period i.e. between 7.00 AM on October 28 and 6.30 PM on November 7 in the current general election to the state legislative Assembly of Bihar, 2020 to ensure free and fair elections," the PCI said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday met Lok Janshakti Party Chief Chirag Paswan at LJP office in Patna during 'Shraad’ ceremony of latter's father late Ram Vilas Paswan.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Tuesday exuded confidence that the Grand Alliance involving his party and the RJD will form government in Bihar following the upcoming assembly elections. He also said that he will go to Bihar for campaigning.
"The election campaign of the Congress and RJD is going well and a change will take place in Bihar with the Congress-RJD alliance forming government," Pilot was quoted as saying by PTI.
Pilot said Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar's claim of "good governance" has already been exposed. "He did not care for the labourers and students who were stranded outside Bihar during the COVID-19 lockdown."
In an interview with the Indian Express, CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya talks about his party joining the Grand Alliance, accuses the BJP of being anti-farmer, call the situation in UP super jungle raj, and defends RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s inexperience criticism. Click here to read the full interview.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday forayed into battleground Bihar where he asked people to vote the NDA back to power, drawing upon Prime Minister Narendra Modis mass appeal and the BJPs ability to walk the talk on Ayodhya, Kashmir, and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
The BJP’s star campaigner blazed through three assembly segments with back-to-back rallies on the first day of his campaign in the poll-bound state, commencing his speeches with roars of Vande Mataram and signing off with chants of Jai Shri Ram.
Yogi also made it a point to ask the voters to cast their ballots only for adhikrit (authorised) NDA candidates and help Nitish Kumar return as the chief minister in line with the stance adopted by the BJP in the wake of the revolt by LJP chief Chirag Paswan who has fielded a number of rebels from the saffron party and the JD(U). (PTI)
The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) scrutinised declarations made by 1,064 out of 1,066 candidates contesting in the first phase of Bihar elections to find that almost a quarter (23%) of them face serious criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder and rape. More details here.
Political parties in Bihar have intensified their campaign against one another with the election dates coming to a close. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has hit out at the NDA government saying they have ruined Bihar in 15 years.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday urged the people of Bihar to vote his development-oriented counterpart Nitish Kumar back to power, while underscoring that the BJP, an alliance partner, has fulfilled its promises on emotive issues like Ayodhya, Kashmir and Pakistan, PTI reported.
He also said: "When millions of migrants were forced to flee Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party government, we in UP received them with warm water to wash their tired feet and freshly prepared food to nourish their bodies before they undertook the onward journey back home".
LJP MP Prince Raj today arrived at RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s residence to hand over an invite for late Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan‘s 'shraad’ ceremony. "There was no political talk as I came here due to our family relationship with them and to personally invite them for shraad," he told news agency ANI.
CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya talks about his party joining the Grand Alliance, accuses the BJP of being anti-farmer, call the situation in UP super jungle raj, and defends RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s inexperienced criticism. "If RJD’s tenure could be called jungle raj, what we are witnessing is super jungle raj (in states like UP). Bihar awaits that. The BJP is not talking about issues of livelihood and employment, but invoking the past and raising bogeys," he says. Read full interview here.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is addressing a rally in Gopalganj.
Mahadalit is not a constitutional term. Scheduled Caste is the officially designated group in India. As chief minister, Nitish Kumar had introduced the Mahadalit umbrella in 2007 after the Bihar State Mahadalit Commission recommended inclusion of 18 SCs in the category. It was seen as a move to cultivate his constituency from among Scheduled Castes. Subsequently, three more Scheduled Caste groups were included, leaving out only the Paswans or Dusadhs. Mahadalit is a conglomerate of over 20 Scheduled Castes. The late Ram Vilas Paswan was opposed to the term and kept Paswans, also a Scheduled Caste, out of the Mahadalit category in the early days of the categorisation. During the 2010 Assembly elections in Bihar, Nitish Kumar started over a dozen schemes for the group including housing, scholarship, educational loan and school uniform programmes. Ahead of the 2014 general elections, the Bihar CM directed the revenue department of the state to provide land to all Mahadalit families in the state for housing. Click here to read more.
It’s been a dizzying rise for Sanjay Jaiswal in the Bihar BJP. In February 2005, he had contested from Bettiah Assembly constituency on an RJD ticket and lost miserably. By 2009, he had moved to the BJP, and would go on to win the Lok Sabha election from Paschim Champaran thrice. By September 2019, he was the president of the Bihar BJP unit. At the same time, the BJP is Jaiswal’s natural home. His father Madan Prasad Jaiswal had been an active Sangh Parivar activist and was one of the founding members of the BJP. A three-term Lok Sabha MP, he represented Bettiah Lok Sabha constituency from 1996 to 2004. When the BJP was selecting a state president, this worked in Jaiswal’s favour. Along with the fact that, as a practising medical doctor, belonging to the Vaishya community, Jaiswal fit well with the BJP’s search for the right man and right caste for the post. Click here to read more.
Much before the RJD-led Grand Alliance announced its seat-sharing, senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had said, “More the number of seats the RJD contests, the keener the fight.” The BJP’s wish appears to have been granted, in ways more than one. The RJD, that contested 101 seats in the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan in the 2015 Assembly polls and won 80, is fighting on 144 constituencies in the coming election. Not only that, the RJD, the strongest of the Grand Alliance parties, is fighting on most of its seats against the JD(U). On as many as 77 of its seats, RJD candidates are up against the Nitish-led JD(U), which had bargained hard to ensure it got more constituencies (115) than the BJP (110) in the NDA seat-sharing. In other words, in just about 30% of its seats (38 in all), the JD(U) can expect an easier fight. Click here to read more.
With his son Luv Sinha taking the electoral plunge from Bankipur assembly seat in Patna, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha Monday said it's an encouraging trend that youths are entering politics, but made it clear that he himself is not retiring. The Congress has fielded Luv from Bankipur seat, a BJP stronghold from where the saffron party has nominated three-time MLA Nitin Nabin.The Bollywood actor of yesteryears, however, said that this doesn't mean that he himself is saying goodbye to politics. "I am not tired and retired. I will continue in active politics," the 74-year-old told PTI over phone.
The Centre Monday increased the campaign expenditure limit by 10% for all future elections.
The notification came more than a month after the Election Commission (EC) proposed the hike, given the constraints posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The last hike in the expenditure ceiling was before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Candidates contesting elections in Bihar will be the first to benefit from the development as the expenditure ceiling for the state polls is now Rs 30.8 lakh, from Rs 28 lakh. Read more here
Ridiculing Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of providing 10 lakh jobs if elected to power, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Monday the RJD leader has no knowledge or experience and “they may start their own business” in the name of providing employment, PTI reported.
Addressing a poll rally, Kumar said: “There are some people who know nothing but are promising these many jobs. Where will the money come from? Don’t be surprised they start their own ‘kaam-dhandha‘ (business) in the name of providing jobs.”
With his son Luv Sinha taking the electoral plunge from Bankipur assembly seat in Patna, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha Monday said it’s an encouraging trend that youths are entering politics, but made it clear that he himself is not retiring. More details here.
Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning shooter and the BJPs candidate from Jamui assembly seat Shreyasi Singh has said she wants to establish a sports authority here to make sports competitive and professional in Bihar.
The 29-year-old also said she wants to become the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modis "Aatmanirbhar" (self-reliant) India initiative and work towards creating employment opportunities in Bihar so that people are not forced to go outside to earn a livelihood.
She said joining politics doesn't mean she would quit sports. Singh said she would continue the two simultaneously.
"That is the reason I have chosen to contest assembly polls rather than Lok Sabha polls. An assembly constituency is smaller than a Lok Sabha constituency. Winning an Olympic gold is still my dream," she told PTI-Bhasha in an interview.
Senior BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will address more than 18 rallies over six days in poll-bound Bihar, his office said Monday.
Singh, a former president of the party, will address a rally each in Badh, Nokha and Aurangabad on October 21, and in Banka, Barhara and Ramgarh on October 22.
The Union minister will address 18-20 rallies in six days of campaigning during the three phases of polling on October 28, November 3 and 7. (PTI)
Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda will address four public rallies in poll-bound Bihar on Tuesday and Wednesday and also speak at a meeting of leaders of the ruling National Democratic Alliance during a two-day visit to the state.
Nadda will address election rallies in Buxar and Arrah on Tuesday afternoon, news agency PTI reported. The BJP president will then address the NDA meeting in Arrah. On Wednesday, he will hold election rallies in Bettiah and Motihari.
A young Muslim candidate fielded by the Congress in Bihar election has become the target of a relentless attack by the BJP, which is accusing him of being a “Jinnah sympathiser”. Senior BJP leaders from Bihar and outside have issued statements in recent days, saying Maskoor Usmani, Congress candidate from Jale in Darbhanga district, supports the “ideology” of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Click here to read our full interview.
The four chief ministerial candidates in the fray — Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Upendra Kushwaha and Pappu Yadav — are all making tall promises to get votes. While Nitish Kumar has been promising irrigation facility in every field, Tejashwi has been talking of a loan waiver to farmers and 10 lakh permanent jobs. Click here to read more.
Facing the daunting task of taking on a three-time sitting MLA, Congress candidate from Bihar’s Bankipur Luv Sinha on Sunday said he has decided to fight an “uphill battle” on his political debut by challenging the BJP in its bastion in order to prove his mettle.
The son of Bollywood superstar and former Union minister Shatrughan Sinha, Luv Sinha also said he is not contesting from the Bankipur assembly seat that falls in the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha segment to avenge his father’s defeat from there in the 2019 general elections. He asserted that he was fighting for the welfare of the people of Patna. An actor-turned-politician like his father, he told PTI in an interview that the BJP was a changed party post-2014 and alleged that there were not many intra-party discussions now but only “orders” were given.
In Bihar’s political parlance, Luv stands for the OBC Kurmi community and Kush for the OBC Kushwaha (Koeri) group. The two caste groups are together referred to as ‘Luv-Kush’, and constitute about 10 per cent of Bihar’s population.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has nurtured this constituency very meticulously over the years, without talking much about it. He reportedly came up with the plan to woo the community way back in 1995 to take on the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) vote base. However, while Lalu Prasad never shied away from the M-Y tag, Nitish Kumar has always been very conscious about mentioning his influence over the group since he fears being labelled as casteist.
While cracks were anticipated in the Luv-Kush vote bank when Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha (‘Kush’) broke away from Nitish Kumar, it has not had much impact in Assembly polls. The Luv-Kush votes are spread over the state, with large sections in Nalanda, Arwal, Munger, Bhojpur, Samastipur, Khagaria, East Champaran and West Champaran. The community is largely made up of landowning farmers and vegetable growers.
This was supposed to be the election where Prashant Kishor made his way from the back room to the frontlines. Appointed straight at the top as JD(U) vice-president by Nitish Kumar after the 2015 polls, the election strategist had seemed set for another leap. One-and-a-half years later, Kishor is out of favour — and out of sight. After falling out with Nitish, he had started an apolitical forum called “Baat Bihar Ki”, promising to develop leadership from the grass-roots.
However, Patna is abuzz with reports that Kishor is on the move again, meeting leaders of smaller parties like the RLSP, after trying his luck with the Mahagathbandhan. The JD(U) sees Kishor’s hand in LJP chief Chirag Paswan’s decision to leave the NDA.
The shraddha ritual of former union minister and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan will be held in his native village in Khagaria district on Monday, his son Chirag Paswan said on Sunday. He said on October 20, the shraddha function will be held in Patna for which invitation has been sent to all political leaders cutting across party lines and others known to the veteran leader. Chirag told PTI-Bhasha that at native village Shaharbanni they will host fellow villagers and also those living in neighbouring villages on Monday. For the Tuesday function in Patna, invitation has been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and other political leaders.
As AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi senses an opening in Bihar, its state unit chief Akhtar-ul Iman has emerged as the face of the party in the state. A good orator who is fluent in Urdu like mentor Owaisi, the 55-year-old has built the AIMIM virtually from the scratch in Seemanchal, a backward region where Muslims are in substantial numbers and where it sees its most chances. Iman had sprung a surprise when he had joined the AIMIM ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, withdrawing his candidature as a JD(U) candidate from Kishanganj at the last moment. The matter was of particular embarrassment for the JD(U) as it had taken in Iman just months earlier, after he had switched over from the RJD. At the time, Iman had told The Indian Express, “Their (JD-U’s) people had a tacit understanding with the BJP. I didn’t want to have anything to do with that.” Following Iman’s withdrawal from the race, Congress candidate Maulana Asrarul Haque had won the seat. Click here to read more.
Paswan tweeted: "With your blessings, LJP will win more seats than JD[U]. Keeping in tune with the idea of 'Bihar First, Bihari First', we will create a new Bihar."
Paswan added: "If any legislator or the chief minister himself comes to ask you for votes, ask them what have they done for you in the last five years." He said: "Keeping silent on your performance in the last five years is also fraud. It is on purpose that the citizens are not being briefed on the developments."
In a fresh attack on Kumar, LJP leader Chirag Paswan today said that a single vote for the JD{U} can spoil the future of the entire state. "Going by his {Kumar's} progress in the last five years, we can actually predict the upcoming years. We have to take important measures to bring Bihar out of this state of helplessness," he tweeted.
Speaking to reporters on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's relations with LJP leader Chirag Paswan, RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav today said: "What Nitish Kumar Ji did with Chirag Paswan is not good. Chirag Paswan needs his father at this time more than ever before but Ram Vilas Paswan ji is not among us and we are sad about it. Nitish Kumar did injustice to Chirag Paswan."
Shaktisinh Gohil may seem an odd choice as the Congress in-charge of Bihar, particularly given the uphill battle the party faces in a state where it has been now out of power since 1990. However, there are two things that make the 60-year-old uniquely placed for the job: the fact that he is a veteran of many political battles against Narendra Modi-led BJP in native Gujarat; and that he is among the few Congress leaders considered close to both Ahmed Patel and Rahul Gandhi. In his over three-decade political career, it is the first time Gohil will be overseeing a state election as an AICC pointsman. His hand is seen in the hard bargaining by the Congress to secure 70 seats in the Mahagathbandhan, a huge jump from the 41 the party had contested in Bihar in 2015. Click here to read more.
In the coming Bihar polls, where the BJP is seen as positioning itself to win more seats than its ally the JD(U), the party has left as many as 11 seats for the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). This has left the BJP with 110 seats, against the JD(U)’s 115. The reason for the BJP’s accommodation of the political greenhorn is the votes the VIP commands. Led by Bollywood set decorator from Darbhanga Mukesh Sahani, the VIP came up only two years ago, even though Sahani has been active since 2013. Championing the cause of the Nishad (Mallah) caste bouquet — Sahani officially calls himself “Son of Mallah” — the party claims considerable influence among the boatmen and fishermen communities populating the riverine belts of North Bihar. Led by Bollywood set decorator from Darbhanga Mukesh Sahani, the VIP came up only two years ago, even though Sahani has been active since 2013. Championing the cause of the Nishad (Mallah) caste bouquet — Sahani officially calls himself “Son of Mallah” — the party claims considerable influence among the boatmen and fishermen communities populating the riverine belts of North Bihar. Click here to read more.
The government’s ambitious ‘Ghar Tak Fibre’ scheme — which aims to connect all the villages with high-speed internet — is off to a slow start in poll-bound Bihar, the first state that aims to connect all its 45,945 villages by March 31, government data obtained by The Indian Express showed. To connect all villages by March 31, the state would need to dig trenches, lay cables, and provide connectivity to an average of 257 villages daily, or a monthly average of over 7,500 villages. However, nearly a month after the scheme was inaugurated, optical fibre cable has been laid only in 4,347 villages as of October 14, or at the rate of 181 villages per day. Click here to read more.
With the polling dates coming to a close, political parties have stepped up their campaigning and attacks on their rivals in Bihar. On Sunday, the Congress released its campaign song ‘Bole Bihar Badle Sarkar’ (Bihar seeks government change) to take a jibe at the JD(U)-BJP coalition. Political campaigning will continue today as well. Follow this space for all the latest updates.