Fate of 1,204 candidates to be sealed today
Bihar is going to polls for 3rd and final phase on Saturday for 78 seats spread over 16 districts, many of them considered the stronghold of the RJD-led grand alliance.
The NDA will have to do better than expected to make up for the losses it is feared to have suffered in the first round.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 Assembly segments of the 243-strong Assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the State Cabinet.
Out of these 78 seats, in the 2015 Assembly elections, the Janata Dal(U) won 24 seats, the RJD 20, the Congress 10, and the BJP 19 seats.
The 16 districts which are going to the polls fall under Seemanchal, Mithilanchal and Koshi regions. All of them have a heavy presence of Yadav and Muslim voters, who form the base of the grand alliance. Mithilanchal has a good number of Brahmin voters. For the first time in 15 years, the Brahmin votes are understood to have not gone lock, stock, and barrel with the NDA.
The 78 seats also have a good number of extremely backward caste voters who form the biggest chunk of support for the JD(U). Nitish Kumar has cultivated this section of voters assiduously over the years.
The BJP has gone all out to polarise the voters in this phase in a repeat of the 2015 attempt when the party gave full-page advertisement exhibiting the plight of the “cow mata.”
Leading from the front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his campaign speech said on Tuesday at Forbisganj and Saharsa that “these people don’t like to hear Jai Shri Ram. The opponents of Bharat Mata have got united and are seeking votes”.
The BJP top leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, have been talking about Ram temple construction, Article 370 abolition, triple talaq, CAA in an obvious attempt to polaris the voters.
This has not gone down too well with Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Kumar, who slammed Yogi for threatening to throw out the so-called “infiltrators” if the NDA formed a Government in Bihar.
Besides, polling will also take place for Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat where a by-election has been necessitated by the death of sitting JD(U) MP Baidyanath Mahato.
The JD(U)’s bid to retain the Parliamentary seat by fielding his son Sunil Kumar is facing the primary challenge from Congress candidate Pravesh Kumar Mishra, a journalist- turned-politician.
Many of the seats falling in the Kosi-Seemanchal region will be contested between NDA and Grand alliance will be held under the shadow of Owaisi factor given the fact that the AIMIM has fielded candidates in many of the Muslim-dominated seats here and the Hyderabad MP also carried out a hectic campaign.
The Kosi-Seemanchal region also happens to be the main area of influence for maverick former MP Pappu Yadav, whose Jan Adhikar Party is determined to make its presence felt and prove a point to the RJD as both draw their support from the State’s most populous community the Yadavs.
As in the previous two phases, Chirag Paswan’s LJP is also in the fray in a number of seats this time, threatening to play spoilsport for the NDA, especially the JD(U) with its repeated pleas that “every vote cast in favour of the Chief Minister’s party will be a loss for Bihars future”.
While the NDA looked surefooted till a few months ago, poll pundits have begun to predict “winds of change” and the ruling coalition seems to have taken note as emotional appeals to the voters haveemanated from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Kumar.
Modi, who attended 12 rallies during the campaign, came out with an open letter addressed to the people of the State on Thursday saying he “needed” Kumar in the State so that the development of Bihar continues unhindered.
Kumar, on his part, stunned all by winding up his last election meeting in Purnea district with the remark “this is my last election. And all is well that ends well”.
The Chief Minister, who seems to be bearing the brunt of the perceived anti-incumbency with the public anger seemingly directed not as much against the BJP, his alliance partner, caught the rank and file of his JD(U) unawares.
Saturday, 07 November 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
