Bihar assembly elections: BJP, Tejashwi eye spring in autumn of the patriarchs

NEW DELHI: Election Commission connected Monday announced two-phase assembly polls successful Bihar connected Nov 6 and 11, mounting the signifier for what is apt to beryllium mostly a consecutive contention betwixt accepted foes - the Nitish Kumar-led BJP-JD(U) governing conjugation and the Tejashwi Yadav-led 'Mahagathbandhan' of RJD, Congress and CPI(ML).Counting for each 243 seats volition beryllium held connected November 14. The feisty Prashant Kishor-promoted Jan Suraaj threatens to disrupt the bipolar matchup, to beryllium held aft a contentious peculiar intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted amid allegations of "vote theft", conscionable arsenic estranged NDA state Chirag Paswan and his Lok Janshakti Party did 5 years ago.

EC connected absorption attacks: ‘We don’t respond to governmental rhetoric’Elections successful Bihar person traditionally been influenced by caste and this one, the archetypal to beryllium held aft the caste survey, does not committedness to beryllium an exception. But similar the erstwhile ones, it volition not beryllium determined by that 1 origin alone.

Tejashwi Yadav

and his allies, Congress and CPI (ML), person targeted NDA for its two-decade-long incumbency, focusing connected deficiency of jobs, resultant migration and different room array issues.NDA, successful turn, has stayed focused connected lawlessness and anarchy that defined RJD’s reign nether Lalu-Rabri, portion besides highlighting improved infrastructure, instrumentality and bid and restoration of governance.Bihar polls, since the crook of the century, person besides been a contention betwixt RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad and

Nitish Kumar

. Lalu, beset with superior aesculapian complications, has since passed connected the baton to Tejashwi, his younger son, and has anointed him successor.

But this has not dulled strength of the combat betwixt the duo. They buried the hatchet twice, lone to resume the fight. Tejashwi has turned retired to beryllium a worthy legatee and has inherited his father’s pursuing among the formidable ‘M-Y’ bloc.

Nitish, though hobbled by wellness issues, has besides retained goodwill among the constituency that helium forged among non-Yadav OBCs and highly backward castes.After SIR, which saw deletion of astir 68.7 lakh voters and summation of astir 21.5 lakh, including 14 lakh first-timers aged 18-19 years, Bihar electorate stands astatine 7.4 crore, of which 3.9 crore are antheral and 3.5 crore female.

The announcement of Bihar polls came a time earlier Supreme Court conducts its last proceeding connected the slew of petitions challenging the SIR exercise.When asked to remark connected opposition’s recurrent questions connected credibility of the commission, CEC Gyanesh Kumar, astatine a property league connected Monday to denote the canvass dates, said EC “does not respond to governmental rhetoric”.“Bihar has shown the mode to remainder of the country... the state’s 243 electoral registration officers, implicit 90,000 booth level officers and 1.6 booth level agents worked unneurotic to purify the state’s electoral rolls,” said the CEC, portion confirming that the SIR workout volition present beryllium replicated connected a pan-India scale.While 121 assembly constituencies successful Bihar, covering full occidental and cardinal Bihar, volition ballot successful the archetypal signifier connected November 6, the remaining 122 ACs, dispersed crossed Seemanchal and northbound and southbound Bihar, volition witnesser polling successful the 2nd and last signifier connected November 11. This is the shortest canvass Bihar volition beryllium seeing successful respective decades, an result linked by the CEC to elector awareness, improved instrumentality and bid situation, availability of cardinal equipped constabulary forces and summation successful polling unit capacity.