Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dubbed the coming together of Janata Dal- United and Rashtriya Janata Dal as an alliance of "defeated people."
Bihar's former deputy chief minister and senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi explains the party's poll strategy.
Bharatiya Janata Party is leading in six seats while secular alliance comprising Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal-United and Congress is ahead in 4 seats of the total 10 assembly seats where bypoll was held on August 21.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he had parted ways with Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad 20 years ago due to differences on certain issues but this time he will stick together to keep "resurgent" BJP away from power in Bihar.
On Tuesday, BJP President Amit Shah had mocked the alliance saying 'zero plus zero remains a zero'.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Raising the 'Jungle Raj' pitch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday warned that Lalu Prasad will "remote control" the affairs in Bihar and "kidnapping" will be only industry that will flourish if the opposition grand alliance comes to power.
BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday said that fire-crackers will burst in Pakistan if the NDA did not form the next government in Bihar.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the 'grand alliance' in poll-bound Bihar, saying it felt "humiliated" as it was not consulted while deciding seats and would contest the assembly elections in the state on its own.
"You have suffered their arrogance, deceit and exploitation for the last 25 years. Do you want such a rule to continue for another five years," the Prime Minister asked at a mass rally in Patna.
Days after their landslide victory in Bihar assembly polls, Grand Alliance leaders, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad, are celebrating Chhath festival at their residences.
The RJD has fielded six women candidates, some of them are wives of bahubalis.
The RJD polled the highest vote share in Bihar, but it was not reflected in the number of seats it won.
Bihar is no stranger to being at the centre of a tectonic shift in national politics fuelled by turbulent regional forces.
This election has some striking resemblances to the landmark one of 1977, with sub-caste combinations and antipathies still the bedrock of measures
'The general idea is to unite all the anti-Modi parties into an alliance, to dent the PM's image as a vote-winner, and then stymie him in Parliament -- particularly in the Rajya Sabha -- in order to ruin his credentials as a reformer,' says T V R Shenoy.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
In his first press interaction after the massive victory, he said Bihar results reflected the mood of the nation and described it as a "milestone election", while thanking people for the decisive mandate.
Permissive communalism, as represented by the Sachar Committee report, cannot become the basis to counter the threat of majoritarianism, says D L Sheth.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances