Ready for battle of Bihar, says BJP

Within hours of the Chief Election Commissioner telling a news agency that polls in Bihar would take place in September-October, the BJP in the state asserted that it was ready for elections any day, any time.

“We are always ready for polls. Although the new Assembly has to be constituted by November 23, so we were expecting the poll schedule to be announced in September (in 2010, it was announced on September 6 and polls held in Oct-Nov) and elections to be held in October-November. But anyway, it’s up to the EC to decide the dates.

“We, including our allies — Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP and Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP are always ready for elections,” said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

Union Minister Kushwaha too said sooner the polls are held, the better it will be for the state. “Ever since Nitish Kumar deserted the BJP in June 2013, the government’s functioning and administration in the state has come to a halt. We are, therefore, even prepared for polls in July or August,” said Kushwaha, who was the leader of the opposition in the Bihar Assembly in 2004-05 and is now Minister of State, HRD, in the Modi government.

However, the Congress appeared more pragmatic when it said that polls should be held as scheduled. “From July to September, half of the Bihar remains submerged in flood. Therefore, it will not be a prudent move to hold elections in September, particularly at a time when the House has to be constituted on or before November 23,” AICC spokesperson Prem Chandra Mishra said.

Leaders of the ruling Janata Dal (United) and its ally RJD  too conceded that they were ready for polls. But the RJD advised the JD(U) to not adopt an aggressive posture if it wanted a proper seat adjustment among secular forces. “It’s the JD(U) whose stake is high. It should not issue such statements which could hurt allies much before the polls,” said RJD vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

The RJD leader was speaking in an apparent reference to Nitish in which the Bihar Chief Minister had asked the RJD to contest on all the 243 seats, instead of asking a larger pie of 145 seats.

Meanwhile, a week after being expelled from the RJD, Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav on Sunday launched his party — Jan Adhikar Morcha in Patna. Pappu had defeated JD(U) president Sharad Yadav in 2014 but was expelled from the RJD last week due to his increasing ambition in the Lalu’s outfit.