New Delhi: As the poll dates for Bihar assembly elections is set to be announced this week, the Opposition and ruling alliance –National Democratic Alliance (NDA) –are ready with their issues to take on each other to secure a comfortable win in the polls.
Besides the issues like unemployment, poverty, livelihood, etc, the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar may prove to be fresh ammunition in the arsenal of RJD as the crime in the poll-bound state has increased manifold during JDU-BJP alliance in comparison to RJD-JDU alliance.
In recent times, RJD, which is founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav, has been repeatedly targeted by the ruling alliance for the high rise in crime cases during the 15 years' tenure of RJD by comparing the 15 years' tenure of the NDA.
However, as per the Bihar government data of the last 20 months of the RJD-JDU regime and a similar period of JDU-BJP tenure, it has come to the notice that the total number of cases registered under various heads, including heinous crimes, jumped from 3,39,599 under the Grand Alliance regime to 4,12,889 in the present NDA government.
It's pertinent to mention here that Nitish Kumar had resigned on July 27, 2017, citing conflicting differences with its key ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and forged an alliance with his former alliance partner BJP to form the government after a few days by offering deputy CM post to BJP's face in the state Sushil Kumar Modi.
As per the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), Bihar reported 4,412 murders in the time period of December 2015 to July 2017, when the Grand Alliance was at the helm of affairs, which increased to 4,623 from August 2017 to March 2019 during the NDA period.
As per the data provided by Bihar Police, the state has reported 1,774 incidents of rape under the Grand Alliance regime that mounted to 2,324 during NDA tenure. Similarly, till March 2019, 68 incidents of kidnapping for ransom were reported against 37, when RJD was a partner in the government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
In robbery, Bihar registered 2,928 incidents till March 31, 2019, since August 2017, while it was 2,444 between December 2015 and July 2017. Theft incidents increased to 51,807 from 39,109 in the 20-month tenure of NDA 3.0 regime, while kidnapping cases went up from 13,269 to 16,457 and bank robberies reduced from 14 to 10 in this regime.
Similarly, road robberies cases increased to 2,480 in this regime from 1,929. The state witnessed a dip in the riot cases as it reduced from 19,537 to 16, 785 in NDA 3.0 tenure.