Sonia Gandhi sends out a message to poll bound Bihar, attacks ruling NDA's 'anarchy'

Blowing the poll bugle in the light of the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has issued a message to the citizens of Bihar while reiterating the promises of their coalition's poll manifesto 'Badlav Patra'.

Congress on Wednesday released its poll manifesto and also assured that it will 'reject' Centre's farm laws if voted to power. The Congress president promised farm loan waiver and electricity bills to be reduced to half the rates. The party has also promised free education to girls in its poll manifesto.

She said Congress has promised 'Right to Water' and 'Right to Health', and targeting the ruling NDA government, Sonia Gandhi said, "We are committed to all-round progress of the state of Bihar which has been embroiled in anarchy and whose progress has been blocked for many years." She also raised the issue of labour migration during the lockdown.

"The way Bihar's labourers' self-respect was trampled on the roads, it was very saddening. The way the labourers of Bihar and the entire country were humiliated, it is a crime. I feel pained how the worthy youth and workers of Bihar have to depend on other states for education and employment," she said.

Ahead of the three-phased Bihar election, Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday also released the joint manifesto along with Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Shaktisinh Gohil and CPI, CPI(M), CPI-ML leaders of the State. Addressing the media, Tejashwi Yadav had said that the main agenda of the Mahagathbandhan government will be to provide employment and stop the migration of people due to the unavailability of jobs. Reiterating his promise of providing 10 lakh jobs in his first cabinet meeting, if he is elected as the CM, Tejashwi Yadav also talked about the "special status" demand, commenting that "Trump won't confer special status to Bihar."

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Bihar election 2020

Bihar is bracing for assembly elections which will be contested in three phases for its 243 assembly seats on -- October 28, November 3 and November 7. Keeping in view the COVID-19 protocol, the voting time has been increased by one hour. The counting of votes will take place on November 10. The ECI announced the Bihar election schedule on September 25 and the Model Code of Conduct has been in effect since the announcement of election dates. Nitish Kumar is seeking reelection and is the CM face for the NDA. Mahagathbandhan has chosen Tejashwi Yadav as their CM face.

A major battle is expected between the two major alliances -- NDA and Mahagathbandhan. From the NDA fold, BJP will contest on 121 seats of which 11 seats have been allocated to its smaller allies, while the ruling JDU in coalition with BJP will contest on 122 seats of which 7 seats are allotted to Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM, in the 243 seat Bihar assembly election. This election will witness one of the allies in NDA, the LJP contesting solo as the party had differences over the seat-sharing ratio with JDU. On the other hand, Mahagathbandhan consisting of Congress and RJD will have Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face with RJD-Congress agreeing on 144:70 seat-sharing ratio along with three other Communist parties contesting on 29 seats.

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