PATNA: Curtains came down on a high-voltage, no-holds barred campaign on Sunday evening for the second and final phase of the high-stakes Assembly elections in Bihar.
While the first phase of polls, which registered a historic record 65 per cent turnout, was held on November 6, voting for the second phase will be held on November 11, followed by the counting of votes on November 14.
Elections will be held in 122 seats in the second phase, while polling happened in 121 Assembly segments in the first round.
Among the significant seats going to the polls in this phase are Chakai, from where JD(U) minister Sumit Kumar Singh is seeking a re-election, BJP MLA Shreyasi Singh’s Jamui, JD(U) minister Leshi Singh’s Dhamdaha, and BJP minister Neeraj Kumar Singh’s Chhatapur.
In the final lap of electioneering on the closing day Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi figured prominently as star campaigners for their respective parties.
Rahul Gandhi, former Congress president, addressed rallies in Kishanganj and Purnea districts in the Seemanchal region, which has a sizeable population of Muslims, whose support is vital for the opposition INDIA bloc. Gandhi’s campaign was marked by his energetic outings and he addressed 15 election meetings altogether. He led a fortnight-long Voter Adhikar Yatra a couple of months ago, during which he evoked a good response, even though his ‘vote chori’ allegations did not seem to catch enough public imagination to become a poll plank.
Shah, widely acknowledged as BJP’s chief strategist and has been staying in the poll-bound state for days on end, led the most intensive campaign by any national leader. He addressed rallies in Sasaram and Arwal, places where the BJP is relatively weak and which are, therefore, on the radar of the party’s veritable principal strategist.
Rajnath Singh, a former BJP president himself, addressed rallies in Aurangabad and Kaimur districts, both bordering his home state of Uttar Pradesh.
The poll campaign would be remembered for the intensive canvassing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took time off for 14 rallies, besides a roadshow.
This election also saw Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigning in Bihar for the first time. She led a fairly vigorous campaign, with 10 rallies and a roadshow, though one of her election meetings had to be cancelled as bad weather prevented her from taking a helicopter to reach the venue.
The BJP’s star-studded campaign also featured its president JP Nadda, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, regional satraps like Yogi Adityanath, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Mohan Yadav -- the CMs of UP, Assam and MP, respectively, besides actor-turned-politicians Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari.
NDA leaders from other states, like Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh of the TDP, also campaigned for the elections here.
Away from much spotlight was the silent but determined campaign by CM Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, who is aiming for a fifth consecutive term in office.
A spirited campaign was also led by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who fired on all cylinders, buoyed by the confidence shown in him by the INDIA bloc, which has declared him as its CM candidate.
The campaign of the Jan Suraaj Party, considered to be the ‘X factor’ of this election, was all about its founder, Prashant Kishor, who has been credited with managing many glitzy campaigns of political bigwigs across the country, but chose to sweat it out in his home state with a conventional door-to-door style of outreach.
Gandhi claimed that PM Modi and Amit Shah can go anywhere, but they will eventually be caught “for indulging in vote chori”.
Gandhi, addressing poll rallies in Bihar’s Kishanganj and Purnea on the final day of campaign on Sunday, also alleged that the BJP and RSS were trying to divide the nation, while the INDIA bloc was making efforts to unite the country.
“Modi, Shah and the Election Commission have no replies to our ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) allegations, as the truth is now out in front of people… The PM, Shah… can go anywhere they like, but they will eventually be caught for indulging in ‘vote chori’,” the former Congress president claimed.
Gandhi asserted that the INDIA bloc will “100 per cent form government in Bihar” if the people come together and stop “vote theft”.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that the party estimates that the INDIA bloc may win 72 of the 121 seats it contested in the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls on November 6.
Addressing a press conference in Patna, he said that Congress may also have “entered the double-digit mark” in the first phase itself. The Congress leader claimed that ministers in the NDA government “have sensed their defeat” and are trying to “destroy traces of their corruption”.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah charged the INDIA bloc with trying to build a “corridor for infiltrators”, unlike PM Modi, who wanted to build an “industrial corridor”.
Addressing a rally in Sasaram on the final day of campaign for the second and final phase of assembly elections, Shah also promised a future that “mortar shells that will be dropped on Pakistan will be manufactured at an ordnance factory in this state”.
“Recently, Rahul and Lalu’s son (Tejashwi Yadav) took out a ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’. It was not aimed at bringing about any improvement in the lives of the poor living in Bihar, the Dalits and the EBCs. It was aimed at protecting infiltrators,” Shah alleged.
Shah said that “the opposition’s vote bank politics has led them to make attempts for building a ghuspaithiya (infiltrator) corridor, unlike Narendra Modi, who is setting up an industrial corridor”.
“When the government at the Centre was helmed by Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Lalu, terrorists struck at will on our soil. In contrast, now we are beating up the terrorists inside their homes,” Shah asserted.
“In future, if terrorists from Pakistan dare to carry out an attack again, bullets fired by them will be retaliated with mortar shells. Do you know where these mortar shells will be manufactured? In Bihar, in Sasaram, as Modi is trying to build a defence corridor here,” he said.
With Agency Inputs