Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 7
If all the exit polls are to be believed on Saturday evening, the Grand Alliance chief ministerial candidate, 30-year-old Tejashwi Prasad Yadav will have smooth shifting from 10, Circular Road to 1, Anney Marg (named after Maharashtra Congress leader and former Governor of Bihar, Madhav Srihari Anney), bungalow of the chief minister after Tuesday.
Both the bungalows are having a common boundary.
Mood of the Patnaites was also happy as the exit polls appeared on the television sets. On Saturday night, people assembled at Boring Road, Bailey Road, Frazer Road and even in residential colonies of Kankarbagh and Rajendranagar, where crackers were burst and sweets distributed .Even rickshaw pullers joined the celebrations and one of them claimed he had voted for Tejashwi.
All Exit polls on Saturday have predicted a clear lead to the Grand Alliance over the NDA led by the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, who announced his “end of political career: at Dhamdaha on November 5.one Exit poll forecast even 180 out of 243 seats to Grand Alliance.
However, BJP president of Bihar unit, Sanjay Jaiswal today claimed NDA will have three-fourths majority in the House. He held a press conference and thanked the people for overwhelming support to the NDA. There was no mention of Nitish Kumar, but all credits to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for leading the campaign.
State JDU president, Bashistha Narain Singh commented, “Wait for three days. All survey predictions will prove wrong on November 10. From the reports received from district units, NDA is winning the elections”.
Tejashwi who had addressed 251 election meetings was a late starter in the campaign field.BJP had started its campaign on June 7 with the home minister, Amit Shah addressing a rally. Tejashwi took off from the first week of October as seat sharing in the Grand Alliance came too late.
Before being even elected as MLA, Tejaswhi had started contacting industrial houses in different parts of the country and invited them to Bihar to invest, according to his close friends at 10-Circular Road.
Grand Alliance, according to the exit polls, had established an early lead in the constituencies, which went to polls in the first phase on October 28. They are expected to get 60 per cent of the 71 seats in the central Bihar constituencies.
In the second phase elections on November 3 in Patna urban areas, Bhojpuri speaking areas of Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj, Munger too, Grand Alliance has been projected to get a lead over NDA.
However, the best performance of the GA was from the Seemaanchal areas comprising Minority dominated constituencies of Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar, Purnia, Supaul and Madepura having sizable Yadav voters. In these areas, it is claimed BJP suffered because of its association with Nitish Kumar who had become unpopular.
In Munger, the police firing on the devotees of the Durga deity two days before polling cost the NDA dearly as the predictions indicate NDA will lose all the three seats in the districts.
Professor N K Chaudhury, former principal of Patna College commenting on the exit results said Tejaswhi vote bank was added by Youths in addition to Muslim and Yadav promoted by his father Lalu Prasad. He hoped the young leader who promised one million government jobs would fulfill the commitment to keep youths with him.
