Clan election in Bihar -Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Clan election in Bihar

Category » Editorial Posted On Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Political parties in Bihar are gearing up for the Assembly elections. Bihar will elect a new 243-member Assembly during polling between October 21 and November 20. Counting of votes will be taken up on November 24.
The main parties in fray are the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance and RJD-LJP alliance. Congress party has decided to go it alone. JD(U) is being led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whereas the BJP leader in state is Sushil Modi. Similarly, RJD-LJP is being guided by their charismatic leaders Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan.
The ruling front leader Nitish Kumar is against campaigning by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and also BJP MP Varun Gandhi. It is quite possible that the party may not take these two firebrand leaders to Bihar for campaigning. However, to remain together is a political compulsion for both the parties. As political harmony is missing between the parties, it could have a negative effect later on.
The RJD and LJP have arrived at seat adjustments of 168 and 75 respectively. In case the alliance wins elections, Lalu Yadav would be elected the Chief Minister and theDy CM post would go to Paswan's brother, Pashupati.
Meanwhile, Lalu Yadav's son Tejeswi Kumar would campaign for the party's candidates.
It may be noted that Ram Vilas Paswan too has given tickets to most of his relatives. There is lot of bitterness among party workers and leaders of all the three major parties as far as distribution of tickets is concerned. Party workers have started raising slogans in front of the office of JD(U). Similar is the case with leaders of the Congress party. If infighting in Congress is contained then the party may be able to wrest a good number of seats.
One of the JD(U) MLAs, Munna Shukla is in jail. His wife has been given ticket this time. Lalu Yadav had ruled Bihar for 15 years when Nitish-BJP front had dislodged him from office in the last elections.