Today in Politics: Amit Shah and Nadda in UP, Rahul to campaign in Bihar
Leaders across party lines will continue their campaign for the final phase of the polls with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Uttar Pradesh.
Bihar in news
To win in world’s ‘first republic’, RJD wagers on eroding NDA’s Bhumihar base
It is believed to be the first republic in the world that holds a lot of importance for both Buddhists and Jains. Now Vaishali is in the middle of a hard-fought electoral battle between a strongman politician fielded by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the sitting MP from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) whose husband is an influential local leader said to be close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Thrice unlucky, Shahabuddin’s wife Heena hopes for a turnaround after his death
Almost three years after his death, strongman Mohammed Shahabuddin continues to wield influence in the Siwan Lok Sabha seat of Bihar, a region which gave India its first President Dr Rajendra Prasad and became synonymous with notoriety during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Once notorious for crime, voters in this part of Bihar tilt towards NDA but corruption a sore point
Through the late 1980s and 90s, the Bagaha region in Bihar’s West Champaran district witnessed so many kidnappings, robberies, and murders that the government converted it into a police district to manage crime. Flanked on the north by the Valmiki Nagar Tiger Reserve stretching into Nepal and by Uttar Pradesh in the west, it allowed criminals to flit across inter-state and international borders. On top of that, a crippled Bihar Police under Lalu Prasad did not help matters.
As Bihar enters last two laps, Modi a big factor, Nitish can’t be ruled out, Tejashwi is climbing
As 24 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha constituencies complete polling on Monday, five factors are playing out in the key battleground state, that is the key to the fortunes of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition INDIA bloc.
Modi a dominant factor, but Vaishya anger at ticket distribution puts NDA’s Lovely Anand in tight spot in Sheohar
As the cavalcade of north Bihar strongman Anand Mohan Singh and his wife Lovely Anand rolls into the Rajput-dominated village of Sonbarsha, in Tariyani block of Sheohar district, villagers greet them with enthusiasm before taking them to the shrine of local deity Patori Devi, where they claim 56 goats were sacrificed only last Dussehra. “Ask anything and she will grant it to you,” says a villager to Singh.
Nitish Kumar’s core voter base for decades, why Kushwaha support for NDA is wavering
Addressing a meeting in Bihar’s Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency last week, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made an impassioned plea for Nityanand Rai, the junior minister in his department. “I have not done as much work in my constituency Gandhinagar (in Gujarat) as Nityanand Rai has done for Ujiarpur … Nityanand is my friend, ensure his victory with a huge margin,” Shah said.
JD(U) sheen off, why for Bihar’s NDA voters it is Modi in 2024, not Nitish
For the large part of Nitish Kumar’s 19-year rule in Bihar, his leadership has been identified with an efficient administration that restored law and order in the state, built road infrastructure, empowered girls, women and disadvantaged sections of the society with schemes, carefully designed. Credited with identifying women as a separate constituency in the country – long before it became the flavour of many a party – Nitish also enforced prohibition in the state in 2016.