Never losing an opportunity of describing itself as “a party with a difference”, BJP leadership in Bihar has travelled the same path as the political outfits it seeks to distance itself from after it fielded Maithili Thakur at Alinagar seat. Thus it has set aside the claims of veterans by opting for Thakur, a singer, whose voice is one of the most recognisable in the digital age.
The principal rival fronts in Bihar have finally announced incumbent Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav as their respective chief ministerial candidates after weeks of speculation and haggling. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), around the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Janata Dal (United) axis, and the Mahagatbandhan, or Grand Alliance, around the Indian National Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) axis, are caught in their internal games of one-upmanship.
After months of uncertainty and prolonged seat-sharing talks, the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc on Thursday announced RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, a move seen as a last-ditch effort to project unity and end internal squabbles ahead of the polls.
As tensions simmered within the Mahagathbandhan over the failure to arrive at a formal seat-sharing pact for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot met RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday in a bid to ease friction within the alliance.
Jharkhand’s ruling JMM announced that it would not contest the assembly elections in neighbouring Bihar, claiming that the decision was taken in the wake of a “political conspiracy” by its allies RJD and Congress, which deprived it of seats as part of the Mahagathbandhan.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Wednesday donned the political strategist’s hat to predict a certain defeat for the ruling NDA in Bihar, citing the inability of the BJP-led coalition to finalise seats and candidates.
RJD president Lalu Prasad gave away party tickets to candidates favoured by him, unfazed by inability of the INDIA bloc, helmed in Bihar by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, to formally announce a plan for seat-sharing.
The ruling NDA on Sunday announced its seat share deal with BJP and JD(U) bagging 101 seats each, while union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will contest 29 seats in the elections to the 243-member Assembly. Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and former union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) will contest six seats each.
In a major announcement ahead of the assembly elections, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday said that if the RJD-led Opposition INDIA bloc came to power in Bihar, it would bring an Act to ensure that every family in the state has at least one member with a government job.
A former vice chancellor to retired bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, actors, social activists and local public representatives are among the fresh faces who feature in the first list of Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) as the political organisation of poll strategist Prashant Kishor (PK) makes its electoral debut in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
