Bihar gears up for elections. The BJP finally comes out in the open to lash out at the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), its ally at the Centre, with the Bihar election heating up in which BJP ally JD (U) is pitted against the LJP in a direct contest.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged that Chirag Paswan is in fact “trying to mislead people” and called the LJP a “vote-cutter”.
“Chirag Paswan has chosen a separate path in Bihar. Now he is trying to mislead people by taking names of senior BJP leaders,” Javadekar alleged while addressing the media on Friday.
Javadekar added that the BJP does not have “any B or C or D team”. He went on to say that Chirag Paswan’s LJP, which decided to go solo in the state, will be reduced to a “vote-cutter party”.
The LJP has been locked in an acrimonious war of words with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) with its ally reportedly upset about the BJP not attacking the LJP.
The Union minister exhibited confidence that the NDA will get a three-fourth majority in the upcoming election.
The BJP is contesting on 121 of the total 243 seats in Bihar and ally Janata Dal (United) on 122 seats.
The JD (U) and the BJP were expected to accommodate the Hindustani Awam Morcha and the Vikassheel Insaan Party respectively, from its quota of seats.
On October 7, the BJP had allocated 11 seats to the Vikassheel Insaan Party from its quota.
The 243-member Bihar Assembly will go to the polls in three phases — on October 28, November 3 and 7 — and the results will be announced on November 10.
As campaigning for upcoming Bihar Assembly elections gains steam, spread of the pandemic is a big concren among the Patna residents. Another 1,276 fresh cases were added in last 24 hours, and the maximum were reported from here.
Most visiting political crowds has been making a beeline for the state capital over the last two months with large numbers of supporters and workers of different political parties assembling here to claim tickets of different political parties.
The city is facing high risk of infection, officials say.
Among 1,276 cases reported last, 300 cases were in Patna. Compared to Jahanabad (46), Muzaffarpur (48), Purnea (60) and Saharsa with 66 cases.
Patna DM Kumar Ravi says that the health department is continuously campaigning to raise awareness among people especially in areas, where there are large assemblies being conducted. They are being asked to wear masks and maintain social distancing norms.
As per the data of health ministry — 1,99,549 people in Bihar are infected with Covid-19 and 1,88,802 have recovered from it so far — of which 804 patients recovered in last 24 hours.
“We currently have 11,050 active cases in Bihar. Our recovery rate has reached 94.01 per cent. We have conducted tests on 87,77,607 people including 1,08,085 in last 24 hours,” said Mangal Pandey, Health Minister of Bihar.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has finalised names of candidates for second and third phase scheduled for November 3 and 7 respectively.
RJD will be contesting on 56 seats out of 94 seats going for polls in the second phase while the Congress will be contesting on 24 and the left parties on 14 seats. Similarly, it will be contesting on 46 seats out of 78 in the third phase, Congress will be contesting on 25 and left parties on seven seats.
According to a RJD insider, names of candidates have already been finalised, however, their names have not yet been announced. The leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav will announce their names.
Raghopur and Hasanpur seats from where Tejashwi Yadav and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav will contest will be the seats in focus. Besides them, Bahubali candidate Reet Lal Yadav from Danapur, Veena Devi, wife of another Bahubali Rama Singh from Mahanar and Alok Kumar Mehta from Ujiyarpur are important candidates for the RJD.
Lovely Anand, wife of Anand Mohan Singh, is another big name in Bihar who managed to bag the seat from Saharsa. Anand along with veteran leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Dalit leader Ramai Ram, and Shiv Chandra Ram will contest in the third phase. (IANS)