Political parties gear up for upcoming Bihar Assembly polls
Jun 07, 2020
Patna (Bihar) [India], June 7 : With Bihar Legislative Assembly elections just months away, political parties have started preparations for the impending contest. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, political quarters are taking a virtual turn and are banking on social media platforms to reach out to voters.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party's election campaign in the state virtually. The party has chosen Bihar BJP Facebook and YouTube pages for the live streaming to reach out to the people residing in the 243 Assembly segments of the state.
"On June 7, Amit Shah will be addressing party workers that will be live-streamed at 60,000 booths that have internet connectivity. Regular rallies came to a halt due to the pandemic, which will be resumed now with help of digital medium," Bihar BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal told ANI.
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will observe 'Garib Adhikar Diwas' to counter Shah's rally. Recently, Tejashwi Yadav attacked the BJP for campaigning stating, "BJP is the richest party in the country as well as in the world and "it only cares for rich people and not the poor".
"This party (BJP) is calling migrants workers goons. We will celebrate Garib Adhikar Diwas today in protest," said RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari while speaking to ANI.
Notably, the poster war has also started in the state. The Janata Dal-United (JDU) in the morning pasted posters depicting RJD leader and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in jail at Income Tax and Dak Bungalow crossroads in Patna to oppose 'Garib Adhikar Diwas.'
Posters featuring Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mohammad Shahabuddin banging 'thalis' inside the jail. The slogans on these posters read 'Kaidi baja raha thali, janata bajao taali' in an apparent jibe at the two RJD leaders serving terms in prison.
"Tejashwi Prisoner no 3351 (Lalu Yadav) who is lodged in Hotwar Jail will today bang the plates from the prison and people will clap today," said Niraj Kumar of JDU and added, "Tejashwi is the king of corruption who is 8th pass. He copies Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar in politics."
BJP, JD(U) and Lok Janshakti Party are part of the NDA in Bihar and are likely to be challenged by an alliance of the RJD and the Congress besides some smaller political parties in the upcoming Assembly elections.
In the 2015 Assembly Elections, the NDA was defeated by the grand alliance of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress. However, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar later broke ties with his allies in 2017 and entered in an alliance with the BJP again after a gap of over four years.
