Bihar heats up ahead of phase 1 as INDIA bloc pushes Tejashwi as CM face

Patna: Poll-bound Bihar seems poised to witness a presidential-style of campaign by the opposition INDIA bloc which on Tuesday released its manifesto called "Tejashwi's resolve", evoking only the name of the young RJD leader whom it has declared the Chief Ministerial candidate.

Bearing the sub-heading "total transformation of Bihar is Tejashwi's pledge and resolve", the 32 pages long document contains promises like an assured government job to at least one member of every family in the state, which, as per a caste survey conducted a few years ago, is home to more than two crore households.

The ruling NDA dismissed the manifesto as "a bundle of lies and airy fairy promises".

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad also sought to drive a wedge between alliance partners in the opposition by underscoring that the manifesto was all about Tejashwi Yadav and had no mention of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Another NDA partner, Union minister Chirag Paswan, alleged that Yadav was named the Chief Ministerial candidate "under pressure" from the party and Gandhi, by acquiescing to the RJD's demand, has "given up a sliver of a chance that it might otherwise have in the assembly polls".

Nonetheless, the INDIA bloc seemed determined to project a picture of unity, with the crowded press conference, where the manifesto was launched, having as its backdrop a banner with photographs of leaders of all constituents.

The setting was in sharp contrast with the scene about a week ago when Yadav was named the Chief Ministerial candidate at a press conference, held at the same venue, but against a banner which had a huge picture of only the 35-year-old RJD leader.

The alliance partners, which have been left pitted against each other in about a dozen constituencies, seem determined to leave the botched up seat-sharing deal behind, with the Congress announcing that Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, will be in Bihar on Wednesday for two joint rallies with Yadav.

The two leaders, who spent a fortnight together during the "Voter Adhikar Yatra" in August and jointly released an "Ati Pichhda Sankalp", a 10-point agenda for the uplift of extremely backward classes, which has been included in the INDIA bloc manifesto as well, are scheduled to address election meetings in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts.

Political temperature is all set to hit the roof, especially in the 121 assembly segments, out of a total number of 243, which go to polls on November 6 in the first phase.

The BJP, which is known for its star-studded, high voltage election campaigns, on Wednesday has three rallies, one each by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, all of whom will be covering various assembly segments of Darbhanga, Begusarai, Samastipur, Saran, Siwan, Patna, Bhojpur and Buxar.

These rallies will be in addition to election meetings of Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Mohan Yadav and former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi.

The blitzkrieg is expected to set the tempo for the BJP-led coalition, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to return to the poll-bound state for two back-to-back rallies in Muzaffarpur and Saran districts.

Meanwhile, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, who is likely to queer the pitch for the INDIA bloc like he did in the 2020 assembly polls, when his party won five seats, launched his campaign in Bihar with rallies in Gopalganj, Munger and East Champaran districts.

The Hyderabad MP, whose party is contesting 32 seats, will on Wednesday canvass in the Seemanchal region, which borders Nepal and West Bengal and has a high concentration of Muslims.

The day also saw Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor's campaign in Araria, which falls in the Seemanchal region, before retiring for the day in Supaul. In Araria, Kishor, who counts both NDA and INDIA bloc as his adversaries, urged the people to "have no fear of anybody, including BJP, except Allah. Vote for your own children's better future".

The 47-year-old former poll strategist has been served with a notice from the election authorities in his native district of Rohtas, in view of a newspaper report that has pointed out that he was registered as a voter in Bihar as well as adjoining West Bengal.

Kishor, who did not deny having been registered as a voter "during the two years I lived in Kolkata", offering consultancy to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, blamed the Election Commission for the anomaly, calling into question its "tall claims of purifying the electoral roll through SIR".