Farmers Movement Archive

Political parties welcome Bihar election schedule

Political parties on Friday welcomed the Election Commission’s (EC) announcement on the schedule for the three-phase Assembly elections in Bihar, and expressed confidence over their respective imminent victories in the poll. A clash broke out between BJP workers and the Jan Adhikar Party-Loktantrik (JAP-L) workers, led by former MP Rajesh Ranjan, outside the BJP’s office in Patna. JAP(L) workers were protesting against the farm Bills passed in Parliament earlier this week. “We welcome the poll schedule as the people of Bihar have already decided to oust the present government led by Nitish Kumar from power. Our contest is against the BJP, not the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) as he (Mr. Kumar) has lost his political credibility among the voters of Bihar. The mahagathbandhan (‘grand alliance’) will come to power in this election,” said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. Mr. Yadav led a tractor march with senior party leader Shivanand Tiwari in Friday’s nationwide protest over the farm Bills. ‘People’s regime’ Minutes after the poll schedule announcement, imprisoned RJD president Lalu Prasad tweeted,“ Utho Bihari, karo taiyaree … janata ka sashan abki baari ...Bihar mein badlav hoga , afsar raj khatam hoga .. .ab janata ka raj hoga (rise and awake, people of Bihar...make preparations…this time, there will be the people’s regime…a change in Bihar will happen…the end of bureaucratic rule...now there will be people’s rule).” The ruling NDA (National Democratic Alliance) parties, the BJP and the JD(U), also welcomed the poll schedule and said, “There was no contest between the NDA and the ‘grand alliance’ as the NDA will win over 220 seats out of the total 243 seats in the upcoming poll.” HAM(S)’s Mr. Manjhi tweeted, “This election will be fought on the plank of 15 years of sushashan (good governance) versus 15 years of jungle raj . The people of the State will return Nitish Kumar to power again as he has served them well.”

The Hindu

2020-09-26

Patna