Bihar Assembly Election 2025: ‘Lathbandhan’ does not care about the youth of Bihar, PM Modi’s swipe at Oppn alliance

Two nominees of the INDIA bloc in Bihar on Thursday withdrew their candidature from assembly seats in Nawada and Madhubani districts, officials said.

While Congress' Satish Kumar withdrew his candidature from Warsaliganj in Nawada, Bindu Gulab Yadav of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) withdrew her nomination from Babubarhi in Madhubani, they said.

Following the development, RJD candidates Anita (Warsaliganj) and Arun Kumar Singh (Babubarhi) are contesting the polls as ‘Mahagathbandhan' nominees.

Both the assembly seats will go to polls in the second phase on November 11. The 243-member Bihar assembly will go to polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with results set to be announced on November 14.

PTI

The INDIA bloc's chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent statement on CM Nitish Kumar was proof that the BJP has decided not to let the JD(U) supremo remain in power after the Bihar assembly polls.

The young RJD leader fished in NDA's troubled waters at a press conference where, in the presence of alliance partners, he was declared the claimant to the top post.

Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly, said, tongue in cheek, "I would like to highlight the injustice that is being done to Kumar. The NDA has held no such press conference to declare its CM candidate." "We have been saying for a long time that the BJP will not let Kumar become the CM again. Amit Shah spilt the beans when he recently said the members of the legislature will decide, after elections, who will be the next CM," he alleged. Yadav, the former deputy CM, sought to know why Shah is "hiding behind technicalities" this time.

"He did not do so ahead of the 2020 assembly polls. The fact is, Kumar is not enjoying good health and the JD(U) is in the clutches of three-four leaders who are working for the BJP and are out to finish off the party after the elections," he claimed.

"You may safely conclude that no less a person than Amit Shah has made it clear that it is the end of the road for Kumar and his party will cease to exist after the polls," he claimed.

PTI

RJD leader Shweta Suman broke down while speaking to the media, claiming that her candidature from the Mohania Assembly constituency has been cancelled.

She said, “…BJP and its candidate are afraid of me and my party, RJD. That’s why this injustice is being done. In a democracy, if a person doesn’t even have the right to contest an election, just think, when their government comes to full power, what will they do? They will ruin Bihar. They are saying that I am from Uttar Pradesh and that my caste certificate is not valid there, and that I am not an original resident here. But I have been living here for 20 years. Pressure was constantly being placed on the RO and CO from Delhi, and they were forced to make this decision.”

With PTI inputs

The BJP on Wednesday accused RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav of attempting to fool the people of Bihar by making unrealistic poll promises and also targeted Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party, exhorting people to give their mandate to the "tried and tested" leadership of NDA instead of falling for Mahagathbandhan's ploy or "any new experimental politics".

BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi termed Yadav's poll promises a "cruel joke" as he raised questions on the RJD leader's "intentions" behind making such "lofty promises", which would require funds way higher than the current budget of the Bihar government.

"He has promised that he will provide government jobs to one member of every family. As per current projections, Bhar's population is about 13.5 crore... The number of families whose one member is to be given a government job (as promised by Yadav) would come around to 2.90 crore. Their salary will be in the range of Rs 30,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

"If their estimated average salary comes around Rs 75,000, the expenditure on this head would come around Rs 29 lakh crore, while Bihar's current budget is around Rs 3,17,000 crore," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

"Tejashwi Yadav, you stop fooling people of Bihar -- the land of Buddha," he said.

PTI

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday met RJD president Lalu Prasad, apparently with the mandate to defuse tensions with the ally, which has plunged the INDIA bloc into turmoil in poll-bound Bihar.

Emerging after the meeting, Gehlot said winning Bihar was “extremely important” for the opposition alliance, after having been drubbed in a crucial state like Maharashtra, but evaded a direct reply when asked whether the Congress was ready to declare the RJD supremo’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate. “Why do you want me to make such an announcement?” snapped the former Rajasthan CM when journalists asked him about the Congress’ stand on Yadav, who had recently urged the people to make Rahul Gandhi “the next prime minister”.