Bihar polls: War of words between NDA & Grand Alliance turns shriller on the eve of the third phase of elections

By Sanjay Singh

PATNA: With the Bihar elections looking a keen contest, the war of words between NDA and Grand Alliance turned shriller on the eve of the third phase of elections to 50 constituencies.

At his election meeting on Tuesday, PM Narendra Modi called the JD(U), Congress and RJD top leaders ‘Three Idiots’, while attacking chief minister Nitish Kumar for singing a parody on the lines of a number from the movie by the same name. On the other side, RJD chief Lalu Prasad termed Modi as ‘Agyani PM’, while referring to Modi’s Monday’s statement that the Grand Alliance was conspiring to introduce quota on the basis of religion.

The third phase comprising Saran, Vaishali, Nalanda, Patna, Bhojpur and Buxar districts is considered the stronghold of the BJP in view of its past performances in this region. This phase will also see polling in Nitish Kumar’s home district Nalanda and 10 assembly seats of Saran district which has a political association with RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

In this phase, total number of electors is 1,45,93, 980, including 78,51,593 male voters and 67,06,687 female voters. 808 candidates, including 71 female candidates, are trying their luck in this phase. From the NDA camp, BJP, LJP, RLSP and HAM have fielded 34, 10, 2 and 4 candidates, respectively, in this phase.