The fifth and final phase of the battle for Bihar will take place in the Muslim-Yadav heartland of Seemanchal, Koshi and Mithilanchal on Thursday amid a raging controversy over a full-page “cow” advertisement published by the BJP in local newspapers.
With the counting to be held on November 8, at stake is the political future of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief lalu Prasad. Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma will come in for scrutiny as he was the virtual face of the NDA campaign and held as many as 24 rallies to woo the voters over a period of four weeks.
On Thursday polling will be held in 57 constituencies in region spread over nine districts with a total voters strength of about 1.56 crore. A total of 827 candidates, including 58 women, are trying their luck.
This phase of polling will also decide the appeal of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslamin (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi. The AIMIM is contesting on six Muslim-dominated seats in Kishanganj and Purnia. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar and Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) of Pappu Yadav too have stakes in this region.
The last phase of voting will be decisive and largely responsible for making or marring the electoral prospects of the two alliances. The election had so far largely been bipolar across Bihar, but in this phase the presence of the AIMIM, NCP and JAP could make the contest interesting.
The BJP has fielded 38 candidates, JD(U) 25, RJD 21, lJP and Congress 11 each, JAP 40, AIMIM 6, RlSP 5 and HAM 3. At present JD (U) holds 24 seats, BJP 20, RJD 8 and Congress 5. The stakes of Mahagathbandhan are high in this phase.
Among the prominent leaders contesting are Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, leshi Singh, Beema Bharti, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Naushad Alam; RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddiqui, lalit Yadav and Bhola Yadav, Nitish Mishra, Vinod Narayan Jha and Saba Zafar of BJP and Akhtarul Iman of AIMIM.
While the heat and dust of the campaign was settling down on Tuesday, some provocative advertisements in newspapers on Thursday caused much commotion and protest, forcing the Election Commission to send a stern directive to Bihar Chief Electoral Officer to ensure political parties and candidates do not publish any advertisements in the State’s newspapers unless cleared by the empowered media committee.
The EC passed the unusual order amid the anti-BJP alliance condemning the ads appearing with a clear attempt to “polarise” election by promoting “communal hatred”.
The EC order issued to Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar noted its anguish how the ad came to be issued despite its earlier order to impose strict checks. “In order that no such instance is repeated on the date of poll (November 5) and no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory or hate advertisements, the Commission, in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of Constitution and other powers enabling it in this behalf directs that no political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in newspapers on November 5 unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC Committee.”
Hurt by the “cow” advertisement, a JD(U) delegation led by KC Tyagi met the Commission and sought appropriate action against the BJP. The BJP, however, defended its action, saying there was “nothing wrong in it”. The ad, with the photograph of a woman cuddling a cow, referred to the purported remarks of RJD supremo lalu Prasad, his party’s vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over beef consumption and asked Kumar to “stop politics of vote bank and answer if he agrees with statements of his friends on beef.” According to the delegation that met EC, the advertisement amounted to “seeking votes in the name of religion”.
However, defending the “cow” ad senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, “There is nothing wrong in our advertisement on beef issue and asking the Chief Minister to break his silence on controversial remarks made by the RJD supremo lalu Prasad, his colleague Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Karnataka Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah. We were not the first to raise the issue (of beef). It was lalu who did. We have just responded.”
This is the second time the BJP’s advertisement has fuelled controversy. In an earlier ad, BJP accused Nitish Kumar of conspiring to take away part of the quota for Dalits and EBCs and give it to minorities for which EC issued the party show-cause notice for poll code violation.
“This is yet another attempt to polarise the Bihar elections by promoting communal hatred. BJP continues to violate the Model Code of Conduct with impunity,” the delegation led by Tyagi said. He also made it clear that if EC failed to act, they would approach President Pranab Mukherjee.