Campaigning for the high-stakes assembly elections in Bihar kicked into high gear on Wednesday as both the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition Grand Alliance deployed top leaders to address rallies criss-crossing the state, hoping to convince voters before the polls next month.
The NDA campaign was fronted by Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, two other Union ministers and chief ministers of threestates. Shah, who addressed three rallies, underlined that Nitish Kumar would remain chief minister if the NDA came back to power, called the Opposition alliance “thug bandhan” and alleged that Rahul Gandhi wanted to shield infiltrators by opposing the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
“The Bihar polls are an election to prevent the return of ‘jungle raj’ to the state. The NDA in the state is like ‘paanch paandav’ — a strong alliance of five parties. The INDIA bloc will be routed and we will form the government after registering a historic victory this time,” Shah said in Darbhanga.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav addressed two joint rallies, attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and underlining the coalition’s promise of government jobs and cash doles. He also hit out at Shah, saying that the SIR was an infringement on the fundamental rights of marginalised communities.
“Tell him at a rally, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, we’ll vote for you if you dance,’ and he’ll break into the act without a second thought…Forget the myth that Nitish Kumar runs this state — it’s the BJP pulling strings from afar, with zero regard for Bihar’s people,” Gandhi said at Darbhanga.
In the two-phase elections on November 6 and 11, the Opposition is hoping to deny Nitish Kumar a fifth consecutive term, but has been besieged by internal dissension over seat-sharing.
In Samastipur, Shah alleged that RJD leader Lalu Prasad wanted his son Tejashwi to become CM, and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi wanted her son Rahul Gandhi to become PM. He added, “I want to say this to Sonia ji and Lalu ji- ‘Bihar mein na CM pad khali hai, na Delhi mein PM pad khali hai. Neither is the PM position open in Delhi nor is the CM position open in Bihar.”
In Begusarai, he also questioned Gandhi’s opposition to the SIR, which was concluded in the state earlier this year and excised 6.9 million names, while adding 2.15 million names.
“Rahul Baba had come here a month and a half ago. Now, after a month, he has come again today. When he came earlier, he had taken out a ‘Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra’. Today I have come to ask the people of Begusarai, should Bangladeshi infiltrators be included in the rolls?” Shah asked.
In Barh, defence minister Rajnath Singh slammed the RJD, alleging that people of Bihar did not want “goonda raj” and that CM Kumar was largely successful in undoing the damage “inflicted by RJD’s jungle raj”.
“The day the Bihar poll results will be out happens to be the birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He may not be one of our ideologues, may not belong to our party, but he was the first prime minister of our nation. I do respect him….If people vote the NDA to power by a two-thirds majority in Bihar on November 14, this will be a true tribute to Pt Nehru in real terms on his birthday,” he said.
Addressing an election rally in Darbhanga, Singh said the RJD had made unrealistic promises and added that the NDA will release its manifesto on Thursday.
Speaking in Siwan, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath alleged former CM Lalu Prasad committed a “sin” by arresting BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani during his Rath Yatra in 1990. “The construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya wiped off the blot (kalank) that had mortified the nation for 500 years. But the RJD’s men had committed the sin of stopping the Rath of Lord Ram”, the UP chief minister said. “The Congress, which is the RJD’s ally, has been claiming that Lord Ram did not exist,” he added.
The Opposition’s campaign was led by Gandhi and Yadav’s joint rallies.
Gandhi accused the government of crony capitalism. “I dream of ‘Made in Bihar’ everywhere—but not under a government that funnels everything to 5-10 billionaires while two Indias emerge: one for the masses, one for the elite,” he said. “Modi ji calls demonetisation and faulty GST reforms but later presents a tax reduction as a Diwali gift.” He also dared Modi to rebut US President Donald Trump’s claims that Operation Sindoor was halted under American pressure. “Modi fears Trump, unlike Indira Gandhi, who stood firm on Bangladesh against global arm-twisting,” he said.
Gandhi also alleged poll rigging in Maharashtra and Haryana, two states won by the BJP last year. “They’re plotting the same in Bihar. Stealing votes is an attack on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution—we’ll defend it tooth and nail,” he said.
Yadav focussed on jobs. “Rahul ji and I aren’t here for photo-ops; we’re here to build a Bihar where every young person gets a job, not a jumla,” he asserted in Darbhanga, where chants of “Tejashwi CM! Tejashwi CM!” filled the air.
“The Prime Minister is interested in opening factories in Gujarat but wants victory in the Bihar polls. This will not happen,” Yadav said in Darbhanga. “We will make all contractual employees of the Bihar government permanent.”
Yadav also took a jibe at Kumar, saying “the government in the state is being run through remote control by the BJP”.
“But, we Biharis must drive out the government which is being controlled by outsiders (baahari), who seek votes in Bihar but care for setting up factories only in Gujarat,” he said.
