“Parliament is not a place for drama; it is a place for delivery,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday in his customary remarks ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament. “For some time now, our Parliament is being used either as a warm-up arena for elections or as an outlet for frustration after defeat,” Mr. Modi went on to allege, referring to the Opposition.
After quitting politics and disowning her own family, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter once again hit out at the close aides of party leader and her brother Tejashwi Yadav.
The NDA is expected to apply the same formula for portfolio allocation that it used during ticket distribution, coalition insiders indicated. Under the emerging arrangement, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will continue to hold the Chief Minister’s post. Meanwhile, the BJP and Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas) are each likely to secure one Deputy Chief Minister position, signalling a balanced power-sharing structure within the alliance.
Bihar is trapped in a fiscal cycle where debt sustains expenditure but rarely builds assets. Here is a state which behind electoral fervour and populist promises struggling to balance ambition with capacity.
The Opposition Mahagathbandhan “no holds barred” campaign centred around the “vote chori” allegations and the spirited efforts by Prashant Kishor’s fledgling Jan Suraaj Party will fail to dethrone the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar, or so predict the exit polls. The average of all exit polls foretells a sweeping victory for the ruling alliance in Bihar.
The skies over Bihar turned into a battleground for weeks, as helicopters and chartered planes carried top politicians across the state in a campaign of unmatched scale and cost. By Sunday evening, the airborne armada fell silent, marking the end of campaigning for the second phase of assembly elections after more than 450 sorties, according to news sources.
In Bihar’s highest-ever voter turnout, nearly 65% of 3.75 crore electors cast their ballots on Thursday across 121 constituencies in the first phase of the assembly elections — a high-stakes contest seen as a litmus test of the ruling NDA’s popularity.
Predominance of caste system has been stated to be the bane of Bihar, but it’s forthcoming election is witnessing regional allies of BJP and Congress getting a lion’s share of seats lest the caste equation go awry. Keenly aware of the deciding role of caste in voting behaviour, the leadership of both the national level parties have left the constituencies reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates to the regional allies.
As the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections approaches, Tejashwi Yadav, a prominent leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), announced during an election rally on Tuesday (October 28) that if the Mahagathbandhan comes to power, the ban on Tadi will be lifted from the state’s liquor prohibition laws. Currently, the sale and consumption of Tadi are prohibited under these regulations.
The Opposition Mahagathbandhan on Tuesday released its manifesto for the Bihar Assembly polls, promising a government job to one member of every family, restoration of the old pension scheme, 200 units of free power to each household, lift ban on toddy and a monthly allowance of Rs.2,500 under Mai Bahin Yojna for women. The NDA alliance termed the manifesto a “bundle of lies”.
