Tejaswi Yadav the articulate younger son of the charismatic former chief minister of the state Lalu Yadav has been the state's deputy chief minister for a couple years. But this time, he will, for the first time, face the elections without his charismatic father by his side — Lalu is serving time in a Ranchi jail after his conviction in the fodder scam. Chirag Paswan, to whom his father Ram Vilas Paswan had passed on the baton of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in November last year, is ploughing a lonely furrow in the absence of his father, who passed away a few days ago.
The two young politicians, despite have positioned themselves on opposite ends of the political spectrum of left right and center-based politics, seem to have left enough space to unite against a common enemy: chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar.
According to the survey, where 53.3% of the voters feel that the RJD-LJP may join hands after the elections while 46.7% feel that there won’t be any alliance between the two.
While Chirag Paswan has decided to go solo in Bihar elections, on the other hand he is praising PM Modi & talking about forming alliance with BJP post elections. This stance has confused 57.7% of the voters, according to the survey.
Recently, Tejaswi’s jibe on Nitish Kumar over his attitude towards LJP’s Chief Chirag Paswan after Ram Vilas Paswan’s death left the people thinking that the two would join hands. The speculation was even considered true as both young leaders share a common rival.
Later the air of RJD and LJP joining hands before polls was dismissed by both the party leaders.
While Chirag terms Tejaswi as “younger brother”, Tejaswi at a rally in Jamui (Chirag Paswan’s constituency) said that he may ask for LJP’s support if needed in order to keep Nitish Kumar out of power.
As RJD is moving forward with the election campaign is primarily hoping to turn the tide in Bihar riding on an anti-incumbency wave. While LJP is a small party and has majorly played the role if Kingmaker in the state. Though the party may get benefitted with some sympathy votes after the demise of its founder as Paswan senior's name still enjoys wide currency in the state.
Meanwhile, the survey has revealed that JDU-BJP alliance in the state is set to rule Bihar yet again as it is predicted to win 135-159 seats while RJD and its partners are projected to win seats between 77-98. LJP is tipped to win mere 1-5 seats while other parties in fray may win 4-8 seats.
The 243-seat assembly is all set to vote its new government in a three phase voting. Starting from 28th October,4th and 7th November.
Results will be declared on 10th of November.
The ABP-CVoter survey was conducted between October 1-23, 2020.