From Thugs of Bihar to Missing CM: Posters war heats up ahead of Bihar Assembly election

Even as the Assembly Election in Bihar is at least six months away, the ruling, as well as the opposition parties, have started intensifying their attacks on each other through posters.

On Monday, another poster against the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was spotted in Patna. The poster featured a caricature of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on a bus with a caption that read: 'Samajik nyaya ke dhongi ne kiya ati pichhada ke saath arthik jaalsaazi' (The self-proclaimed champions of social justice committed economic fraud against the most backward classes.)

This, however, is not the first poster that has come up in the city. Last week, another poster was spotted with a punchline, ‘Lara Film Presents — Thugs of Bihar’ with a cartoon of incarcerated RJD chief Lalu Prasad as the lead. It also showed a reel with illustrations of kidnappings and murders among other crimes, possibly pointing towards the RJD regime (1990-2005). It also included a one-liner — ‘Zara Yaad Karo, Wo Kahani Purani (Try to remember the old story)’.

Two days before the ‘Thugs of Bihar’ poster appeared, an RJD poster was put up near Income Tax roundabout on Monday with the punchline —’Do Hazar Bees, Nitish Kumar Finish’. The poster mentioned the name of Bhai Arun Kumar, general secretary of RJD (Bihar) and Umesh Yadav, another party functionary from Kumhrar in Patna.

Another poster was seen in the city targetting the ruling JD(U) government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that featured him sitting on a couch, speaking to someone on a call, while arrows of unemployment, no development were targeted at Bihar.

On January 24, a poster was seen in Patna against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who seem to have appeared before a special CBI court to record his statement on corruption cases. The background showed a train that was named 'Corruption Mail' and it featured posters of money being fed to cows.

In December, 'missing' posters of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also put up across the city in Patna.

Even as the Election Commission is yet to announce the date of Assembly election in Bihar, the parties have already started training their guns at each other.