Not Trying to Compromise on Alliance But be Careful of Words You Use Against Me, Chirag Tells BJP

Bihar Assembly Election 2020 LIVE Updates: Leader of Opposition in Bihar Tejashwi Yadav today fired a fresh salvo at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the CM’s chair was the first and last truth for him. Taking to Twitter, Tejashwi said Kumar was not bothered about the youth, women, disadvantaged, farmers, labourers and students. Tejashwi’s attack comes a day after the RJD-led Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday released its joint manifesto for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, promising to offer jobs to 10 lakh youngsters and repealing the new farm laws recently enacted by the central government if they are voted to power.

Releasing the manifesto titled “Badlav Ka Sankalp” (commitment to change), Tejashwi Yadav said their government, if elected, would first approve the process for appointments on about 10 lakh jobs in the government. “Contractual teachers would be entitled for same pay for same work, for which they have been agitating for long,” said Yadav, who is the opposition chief ministerial candidate. Assuring the people that the coalition will stand by its commitments, Yadav said that they were not leaders who conveniently forget their promises and that the state has still not been accorded a special status — a demand echoed for years by political parties in Bihar.

Here are the latest updates from the Bihar elections:

• “(Donald) Trump will not come to accord special status to Bihar, which was once promised by the Prime Minister,” said Yadav, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ties with the US President. Kumar has raised the issue of granting special status to the land-locked Bihar several times, both during the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-helmed NDA- which could bring investment into the state by providing concessions in taxes to prospective industries.

• Taking a swipe at his bete noire Lalu Prasad, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked if during 15 years of RJD rule in Bihar, the government did anything for the upliftment of women except for anointing his wife on the chief ministerial chair. He took an apparent dig at the young opposition leadership in the polls, without taking any names, saying that “those even having no knowledge of alphabets of politic are making statements against me day and night to gain publicity”.

• Kumar is keeping his campaign narrative around “15 years vs 15 years”, appealing voters to compare performance of the NDA and the RJD regimes that spent an equal amount of 15 years. Highlighting work done for women during 15-year under him, Kumar said while girls were inspired to pursue studies through bicycle yojna, 50 per cent of seats in the panchayats and urban local bodies were reserved for women.

• The three-phase assembly elections will be conducted by the Election Commission of India from October 28 to November 7 in Bihar. Last month, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced that the counting of votes will take place on November 10.

• In the first phase, the polling will be held in 71 assembly constituencies across 16 districts, while the second phase will see polling in 94 constituencies in 17 districts. Seventy-eight constituencies in 15 districts will vote in the third phase.