Bihar Assembly Elections: Opposition at Striking Distance
Asia News Agency
As the election to the Bihar Assembly comes close, there is heightened political activity. Home Minister was in Bihar for talks on seat distribution. Prime Minister Modi visited the state earlier when he targeted ‘infiltrators’, a constituency he alleged the Congress was cultivating.
Congress alleges manipulation of electoral rolls
The Congress is upbeat smelling a chance to win the state back. Rahul Gandhi’s Right to Vote March has go even it momentum. Thursday, he accused the Election Commission of withholding evidence from Karnataka police, who he said were probing thousands of fraudulent applications for name deletions from the state’s electoral rolls, filed by people impersonating genuine voters. Rahul said in a TED-style presentation that unknown people had used mobile phones registered in other states to file 6,018 name-deletion applications relating to a Karnataka Assembly constituency.
He clarified that Thursday’s revelations were not the ‘hydrogen bomb’ exposé of the poll panel he had promised — that would come later.
The Election Commission has denied Rahul’s allegations.
This is Rahul’s second set of allegations about the manipulation of electoral rolls. Last month, he had released purported documentary proof and claimed that more than one lakh bogus voters were on the rolls of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of Bengaluru Central parliamentary seat during last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Gyanesh Kumar had denied these allegations as well.
Amit Shah rejoinder: Union home minister Amit Shah said Thursday that the aim of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ was to protect infiltrators from Bangladesh.
The BJP has planned to highlight the ‘ghuspetiya’ (infiltrator) issue as a key plank for the upcoming elections. Earlier last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised alleged infiltration during a trip to Bihar.
The ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ (Right to Vote March)
Some observers believe the apparent success of party leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ (Right to Vote March) in Bihar condemning the NDA for the alleged vote theft has pumped up the energies of the Congress “so much so that it has started moving in an unrealistic orbit,” according to The Asian Age. The party wants 70 seats to contest despite its poor showing, winning only 19 seats out of the same number in the last Assembly elections. That was the reason why the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, the grand alliance, lost the election last time.
This is in the context of the statement of other main alliance partner, RJD leader and Bihar’s leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav that he will be the candidate in all the 243 seats.
The Congress has of late, writes The Asian Age, “been playing the part of a party pooper in state elections because of its failure to comprehend the changed dynamics of Indian politics. It is no more the party of prominence in many states. The regional forces have been calling the shots there, and only a synergy in the combine can upset the well-oiled, amply funded election machinery of the BJP-led NDA….
“The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ is at striking distance of a win in Bihar and it is time for the alliance partners to work as a single unit. It is up to the Congress to wake up in time to the ground realities instead of building its own castles in the air based on a single event….”
Prashant Kishor: the outlier
The other seemingly strong player, is the ‘Jan Suraaj’ party founder Prashant Kishor.
Strategy to focus on corruption: He has adopted the BJP strategy of attacking political opponents on corruption, positioning himself as the Mr Clean of Bihar politics. His strategy seems to be working so far, with the BJP, usually the one attacking other parties on corruption, now on the back foot in Bihar. In recent months, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey, BJP state president Dilip Jaiswal, and JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary have all been in PK’s crosshairs.
According to one Bihar BJP leader ‘Kishor has nothing to lose, he is branding himself as a crusader against corruption, even though he does not have the kind of following Kejriwal had. But he is trying to discredit ruling NDA leaders….’
For the BJP the contest in Bihar is bipolar - between the RJD alliance and the NDA alliance. Prashant Kishor will only get a small percentage of votes by confusing the people of Bihar.
Professor Rakesh Ranjan of the political science department of Patna University said: ‘Prashant Kishor is trying to take away aspirational voters and middle class voters who usually vote for the NDA…..But in the reality of Bihar politics, the votes are polarised into two blocks and their vote bank is intact.’
