Ninety-four of Bihar’s 243 seats will be elected today.
Patna, Bihar:
Ninety-four of Bihar’s 243 seats are up for election today in the second phase of Assembly polls amid a bitter campaign, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spearheading the attack on the NDA with a series of rallies. The main candidates include Tejashwi Yadav, the leading cabinet candidate for Rashtriya Janata Dal’s alliance, left-wing parties and Congress, whose massive rallies directly attracted the prime minister. “Crown Prince of Jungle Raj” was what Prime Minister Modi labeled him last week as the RJD chief’s rallies grew to gigantic proportions. By-elections for 54 assembly seats in 10 states will also take place today.
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The election is taking place amid a tough campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the de facto face of the NDA, even though Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the official candidate. PM Modi has so far held 10 rallies in the state, two more remain. The BJP made the switch believing that PM Modi’s popularity, unlike that of Nitish Kumar, is intact.
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Tejashwi Yadav, 31, will face BJP’s Satish Kumar in Raghopur de Vaishali, where he defeated him in 2015 and snatched the seat from him. The BJP leader, who defeated his mother Rabri Devi from the same seat in 2010, received a second chance from his party.
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When asked if Prime Minister Modi’s campaign is making him nervous, Tejashwi Yadav told GalacticGaming: “I have nothing to lose. I’m glad I fought on good issues. age on my side. I will try, work more “.
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Tejashwi Yadav’s elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav has moved from Mahua to Vaishali and is trying his luck from Hasanpur in Samastipur district. The change was linked to his marital discord with Aishwarya Rai. His ex-wife and stepfather Chandrika Rai campaigned against the RJD candidate from neighboring Parsa headquarters.
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Over the past few days the jibes during the campaign have flown thick and fast. While Prime Minister Modi had labeled Tejashwi Yadav “Jungle Raj ka Yuvraj”, Nitish Kumar attacked him and Chirag Paswan of LJP, calling them “cricketer and actor using him for publicity”. Tejashwi Yadav hit Mr. Kumar with an allegation of “mental fatigue”. Mr. Kumar has also been called “General Dyer” by the opposition over police action against Durga’s worshipers in Munger, in which one person was shot dead.
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The four assembly segments of Patna, the state capital, owned by the BJP – Patna Sahib, Kumhrar, Bankipur and Digha – will also vote in the second phase. Seven constituencies in Nalanda District, to which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, are also in the running.
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Most of the assembly seats where the partial ballots will be held are in Madhya Pradesh — 28. Eight assembly seats are contested in Gujarat, seven in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Odisha, Nagaland, Karnataka and Jharkhand; and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Haryana.
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The election will be crucial for Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose 22 loyalists followed him out of Congress and into the BJP in March, toppling the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. His friend and former party colleague, Sachin Pilot, is campaigning opposite Mr Scindia, whose brief rebellion against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot – coming shortly after Mr Scindia’s departure – had given rise to nervousness in Congress.
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By-elections will be held on seven assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. In 2017, the BJP won six. The most watched will be Unnao’s headquarters in Bangarmau, where BJP’s Kuldeep Sengar was disqualified after his conviction in a rape case.
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The last phase of the elections will take place on November 7, after which the votes will be counted on November 10.
