Two Assembly seats in Bihar are up for elections on October 30
A day before the bypolls for two seats in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday accused the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of putting pressure on officials to influence voters in favour of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) candidate. Mr. Yadav also alleged that the Nitish Kumar government has been distributing liquor, sarees and money to voters.
“Officials are putting pressure to make people vote for a specific party candidate. The Nitish Kumar-led government is also distributing liquor and sarees to women in the name of the upcoming festival of Chhath in constituencies going to poll tomorrow (October 30) to influence their vote for a particular party candidate,” alleged the RJD leader who is also the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly. Bypolls for both seats — Tarapur in Munger and Kusheshwarsthan in Darbhanga district — is scheduled to take place on October 30 and results will be announced on November 2. Both the ruling JD(U) and the principal Opposition party, the RJD, are locked in close contest on both the seats. The Congress and the Lok Janshakti Party too have put up their candidates for the bypolls.
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Earlier, Mr. Tejashwi Yadav had filed a complaint with the Election Commission against a particular police officer’s posting in Kusheshwarsthan by the government to influence voters there. “On our complaint, the Election Commission removed that officer yesterday and that shows our complaint was true. The present regime of Nitish Kumar is using all tactics to influence voters in these two bypolls but will not succeed. We will win at both the seats,” Mr. Yadav said while addressing mediapersons in Patna. “If the government had done development in the State, they would not have any need to distribute gifts to people to influence their votes,” he added.
Meanwhile, leaders of both the parties have announced that their party candidates were going to win the bypolls on two seats. “Yes, we are going to have a clean sweep on both the seats and it will start the beginning of the end of the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar in the State,” RJD president Lalu Prasad said.
Mr. Prasad, earlier, had addressed two public meetings — one each at Tarapur and Kusheshwarsthan on October 27 — after a gap of six years. A large crowd was gathered at both the meetings, which were marked by his earthy wit and rustic remarks.
JD(U) leaders, too, sounded confident about their party candidates’ win in the bypolls. “Yes, we’re going to retain both our seats with a comfortable margin. Let the result come on November 2,” said JD(U) leader and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.
The result of the bypolls will have no immediate impact on either the NDA government or on the Opposition. The NDA government has 126 MLAs in the total 243 seats in the State Assembly while the Opposition has the support of 110 legislators. The required strength of MLAs to form a government in the State is 122. “The bypolls have certainly become a prestige issue for both JD(U) and the RJD, and a win would be a big push on their morale for political one-upmanship in the State,” said political analyst Ajay Kumar.
The bypolls were necessitated because of the deaths of two JD(U) MLAs — Mewalal Choudhury (Tarapur) and Sashi Bhishan Hazari (Kusheshwarsthan). A large number of security personnel have been deployed in both the constituencies to hold the bypolls smoothly on Saturday.
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