After a knuckleduster electioneering, 57 seats across nine districts of north and northeastern Bihar vote in the final phase on Thursday. It is also the round with the most seats and the alliance that does well in this will in all probability form the next government in Bihar.
This was an extremely acrimonious and raucous campaign in which hitting below the belt was a norm and not an exception. The loudspeakers finally fell silent and helicopter blades stopped rotating at 5 PM on November 3 and now the fate of 827 candidates including several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government is in the hands of over 1.55 crore voters.
Some of the important leaders whose fate will be decided in the final phase are minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav (Supaul), Narendra Narayan Yadav (Alamnagar), Leshi Singh (Dhamdaha), Dulal Chandra Goswami, Bima Bharti (Rupauli), Naushad Alam, RJD’s Abdul Bari Sidiqqui (Alinagar) and Bhola Yadav (Bahadurpur). From the BJP the big guns are Nitish Mishra (Jhanjharpur), Ashok Yadav (Keoti), Vijay Kumar Khemka (Purnia), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga) and Vinod Narayan Jha (Benipatti).
With a close and bitterly fought election, it promises to be the knockout round with the winner takes all. Leaders of all the political parties are in their war rooms to take stock of the situation and keep an eye on the voting in the fifth phase of Bihar Assembly elections on November 5 in the nine districts of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Supual, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria, Kisanganj, Purnea and Katihar.
Both the Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress Mahagathbandhan and Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance have been claiming about forming the next government in Bihar based on the voting pattern of the first four rounds.
Yet, they have put in all their efforts in winning the maximum possible seats in the last round too, indicating that their claims of the first four phases are more about being optimistic than realistic.
Going into the voting day, it is the BJP which holds the maximum number of seats at 23 followed by the JDU with 20 MLAs. RJD has eight, Congress three, Lok Janshakti Party two and one seat went to an independent candidate in the 2010 elections.
But the situation is the exact opposite of what it was five years back. Then the JDU and BJP were in alliance while the RJD was contesting in partnership with the LJP. Two new parties, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) who are with the NDA, were not even born.
Meanwhile, the presence of two new outfits – Madhepura Lok Sabha MP rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) and All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, has given a new dimension to the contest.
NDA is hoping that Pappu Yadav will cut into the Yadav vote bank of Lalu while Owaisi will make a dent in the Muslim community making it tough for the Mahagathbandhan. Pappu has put up candidates in 40 of the 57 seats while Owaisi after a much publicised rally on August 16 in Kishanganj scaled down his ambitions and his candidates are contesting in just six seats.
Attempts to polarise the voters on religious grounds have been attempted and with many seats having a large number of Muslim voters, the final result could change drastically of the electorate fall for such malicious campaign.
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