It is perhaps the most crucial phase of Bihar Assembly elections. In the 50 seats spread across six districts of central and western Bihar voting on October 28, the pocket borough of all the major players will witness polling.
From Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's home district of Nalanda to the debut of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad's two sons from their family bastions and the Bharatiya Janata Party's strongholds in Patna, Bhojpur, Buxar and Saran districts, the polling will determine the political future of many stalwarts of Bihar. Even Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan's hold over his traditional area in Vaishali district is under test.
Lalu Prasad is trying to bequeath his political legacy to his offsprings, a battle he lost in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when his daughter Misa Bharti lost from Pataliputra constituency to his one-time close aide and now rival Ram Kripal Yadav. Now his chosen ones are his two sons – Tej Pratap Yadav from Mahua and Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur.
Faced with an existential crisis, Lalu, who is debarred from contesting elections and holding any elected post due to his conviction in a fodder scam case, has placed his bet on his sons, both of whom are making their political debut in an election that will reveal if the RJD chief's brand of politics is still relevant or the state has moved beyond the clarion call of 'caste'ing the vote. Although his sons are contesting from seats in Vaishali district but Lalu's other stronghold of Saran where the BJP has made major gains in the last couple of years is also voting in the third phase.
After the first two phases in which votes were cast in 81 seats, the Mahagahthbandhan has been claiming victory but now the area where polling is going to take place has been traditionally the BJP's strength. Although both parties have put up most of the candidates keeping the caste equation in mind yet in many seats the divide seemed to have withered away.
While development does have an appeal in urban constituencies, in the rural belts, the arithmetic is all about caste. Mahagathbandhan tried to make Union Minister General VK Singh's (retd) dog remark on the burning of Dalits in Haryana into a poll issue and also succeeded in it, but Modi's rallies in the last couple of days of campaign has galvanized the NDA cadre.
With a long break due to Dussehra and Durga Puja giving all the players a time to recalibrate their strategies and campaign schedule, it will be interesting to see how the call by various leaders affects the voting pattern.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, joined the campaign on October 25 but the level of discourse has gone from bad to worse with the exception of Nitish Kumar, who has been focused on his development agenda.
Modi's name calling and speeches laced with communal agenda have been countered by Lalu pitching in with the caste dice. In all this brouhaha, some sections of vocal voters have already declared the winner even as those keeping quiet are giving nightmares to the contestants, many of whom are banking on the traditional caste divide to sail through.
The Janata Dal United holds 23 seats but is contesting in only 18 this time while the BJP has put up candidates in 34 constituencies even though the party had won only 20 in the 2010 Assembly elections. Lalu's RJD, had won seven seats in the last elections, but is contesting in 25.
Mahagathbandhan's other ally Congress is in the fray in seven seats while National Democratic Alliance partners Lok Janshakti Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party are fighting in 10, four and two seats respectively.
More than 1.45 crore people are eligible to vote and will decide the fate of 808 candidates across 13,648 booths. The key candidates are Bihar minister Shyam Rajak of the JDU from Phulwari Sharif, BJP's Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav from Patna Sahib, Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav from Mahua and younger Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur. Tejashwi faces BJP's Satish Kumar Yadav who had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 from the same seats but as a JDU candidate.
The other prominent names are Deputy Speaker Amarendra Pratap Singh (Arrah), BJP's chief whip in the Bihar Assembly Arun Kumar Sinha from Kumhrar and Vivek Thakur from Brahmpur. Thakur is the son of senior BJP leader CP Thakur.
Former JDU leader Anant Singh is contesting from Mokama as an independent candidate.
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