Key Indian state of Bihar votes in national litmus test

And the Yadavs, Muslims and Kurmis constituting over 35 per cent have consolidated behind the grand alliance.

A BJP win would further demoralise India’s opposition, who are yet to recover from the debacle of last’s year general election which saw a Modi landslide in the Hindi heartland.

AAP’s maiden venture into Delhi’s assembly polls in 2013 led to a huge loss for both BJP and Congress, but it mustered only 28 seats, leading to a hung assembly. The BJP has increased the number of Modi rallies, making him address 40 odd meetings in the election month.

Only election results on November 8 will show whether the electorate will give a clear mandate or which of the marginal players will call the shots in Bihar government formation. (A bribe of) Rs 4 lakh? But ever since the battle for Bihar began, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has embraced social media like never before, answering, to the delight of his fans, tens of thousands of questions. Despite low inflation figures, they complain that food prices continue to increase.

Modi also remain silent over RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment regarding reservation.

Kumar claimed that the Bihar government would not see any of the money in the package as they were to be used for central schemes. The Grand Alliance has given more tickets to Yadavs and EBCs than the NDA.

A deeper analysis of these seats paints a picture that tells the real story of how the electoral landscape shifted in favour of Narendra Modi in these seats to blunt the impact of the Keshubhai-led GPP rebellion against the BJP elsewhere.

Political observers feel that the first phase of voting would set the trend for the coming phases as this phase is covering nearly one-fifth of the total seats located in north and south central Bihar.

Although Mr Modi has campaigned on the promise of jobs and growth, a growing controversy over the issue of banning the slaughter of cows threatens to polarise voters on religious lines. This has encouraged Nitish-Lalu to dub the BJP as “bahari”, meaning outsiders. Kumar left no opportunity to make it as “PM Modi vs CM Nitish” in his speeches by challenging Modi to debate with him on development model. The BJP knows that despite ten years of rule, there isn’t much anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar.

Sanjay Kumar feels that “a victory of BJP would certainly bring this hardline Hindutva to forefront rather than taking a backseat”.

With the caption “Bhajapa ka saath, Sabka Vikas (with BJP, development of all), a vernacular newspaper on Wednesday, surprisingly, carried a front-page BJP advertisement without pictures of any party leader”.