NDA tally to reduce to below 100 in 243-member assembly in Bihar, claims CPI(ML) L

CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Sunday said the high voter turnout in the first phase of the Bihar polls indicates that the anti-incumbency factor remains strong among electors, and claimed that the tally of the ruling NDA alliance will ''reduce to below 100'' in the 243-member assembly. The Left leader expressed shock over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's choice of words like 'katta' (country-made firearm) during the election campaign, terming those as ''underworld language''. ''High voter turnout in the first phase shows that there is an anti-incumbency factor among voters. They are voting against the government. The INDIA bloc will get 140-150 seats in the Bihar polls, and the NDA will be reduced to below 100,'' Bhattacharya told reporters. Bihar recorded the highest-ever voter turnout of over 65 per cent during polling across 121 assembly seats in the first phase on November 6. “I am shocked to hear the prime minister using ‘underworld’ language, including words like ‘katta’. The Uttar Pradesh CM has been invoking the concept of bulldozers from stages of election rallies to spread fear among people,'' the Left leader claimed. Supporting Congress leaders’ allegations of 'vote chori', Bhattacharya said people of Bihar are ''aware of this'' and ''have actively stood up against such efforts in the first phase of the assembly elections''. “Three types of 'vote chori' (vote theft) are going on - deleting names of electors from electoral rolls, stopping people from casting their ballots, and fake voting,'' he alleged. Bhattacharya criticised the NDA leaders for dubbing Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of ''one government job per household'' impossible.

''It may take some time to provide one government job in each household, but it is not appropriate to discard the promise as impossible. Those who don’t want to give jobs will keep making excuses,” the CPI(ML) Liberation leader said. He lauded Yadav for introducing the unemployment problem as a strong issue in the polls, and said, “Now, the NDA is forced to promise one crore jobs.” He also justified Yadav’s promise of increasing the quota limit to 65 per cent, saying, ''reservation is the right of the people of Bihar and it must be ensured''.

On Congress leaders’ allegations that the ruling NDA in Bihar is attempting to destroy “files of corruption”, Bhattacharya said, “These are serious accusations and must be looked into. Even former Union Minister RK Singh has levelled charges of corruption against the Nitish government.” The CPI (ML) leader claimed that there is a sense of ''resentment among many women voters who did not get the benefits of the government scheme - Mukhhomantri Mohila Rozgar Yojana''. ''Even those who got the money as part of the government scheme know it is a poll gimmick,” he claimed. Bhattacharya said that women in Bihar are ''raising a slogan '10 hazaar me dum nahi, karz maafi se kam nahi' (Rs 10,000 is a feeble support, we need nothing less than waiving of our existing loans)”.

On the BJP’s 'ghuspaithiya' claims, he said, “Infiltration has become such a flexible issue that wherever there are elections, infiltrators can be found on duty”, claiming that “the BJP is trying to spread fear among people''.

''Even if there was infiltration, it was the responsibility of the government to stop,'' he added.