Bihar Is Rolling Along

Lalu Prasad, sons hold lessons in politics ahead of Bihar polls

“Go and tell people about the findings of this census. Every third family in the country is landless. 13% of households live in single rooms. Socho, agar chaar beta hai aur unki shaadi ho gayi, to kya hoga (Think, if there are four sons and they get married, what will happen)?” he says. ...... Early on Saturday, Lalu was back in his lawn. A visitor from Chhapra timidly announces his offering of fish and sattoo. Gesturing to leave the bag in a corner, Lalu snaps: “Machhi laata hai, ghoos deta hai ticket ke liye (A fish bribe for a poll ticket)!” Then he asks an aide to show him the fish and hollers: “Feko, feko. Sada hua hai (Throw it out, it’s stale)!” ..... A commotion at the gate stops him. “Aaj koi Muslim ko nahin rokega. Eid hai, sabko andar aane do,” he shouts.

Nitish cautious as BJP reworks Bihar’s caste labyrinth

in the end, much will depend on how the JD(U) and the RJD collaborate on the ground. The JD(U) wants the 2010 Assembly poll results to determine the sharing of seats. In that election, the JD(U) won 115 seats with 22.6 per cent, the RJD just 22 seats, though it polled 18.84 per cent. That happened, of course, because the JD(U) was in alliance with the BJP. Now the RJD wants the 2014 general election results to be factored in as it won four Lok Sabha seats against the JD(U)’s two. ....... It is for this reason that the JD(U) is keen on postponing the announcement of its candidates till a very late stage in the campaign, top sources told The Hindu, hoping that by then, Mr. Kumar’s charisma will have done the trick.

Nitish does a Modi, sets up ‘war room’ ahead of polls



Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Purchases 'Luxury' Bus for Campaigning in Assembly Polls

‘luxury’ and ‘ultramodern’ which could be turned into office at any moment. ...... “Inside the bus, there are four collapsible seats, which can provide more space as per the requirements. There was a bedroom behind the seats complete with a bedside phone. I guess it was a satellite phone. There was TV and refrigerator too,” the source said. ...... “The interior is divided into four areas, driver’s cabin, lounge area, bedroom area and a washroom at the back. The lounge section has 40 inch TV, 32 inch TV, DVD player, speakers (two sets), intercom, 60 litre fridge and electric kettle.”

Why Jitan Ram Manjhi is crucial for BJP in Bihar

But Manjhi's inclusion has now caused serious heartburn for the other two BJP allies, causing new problems for its plan Patliputra. ...... Feeling their space squeezed after Manjhi's inclusion in the NDA, RLSP boss Upendra Kushwaha has also unilaterally proposed its own seat distribution formula by asking BJP to contest 102 seats-which is also the number of seats that the saffron party had contested in 2010 in alliance with Nitish Kumar-and leave 74 seats to the LJP and the remaining 67 seats to his party. Clearly, Manjhi did not find any seat in Kushwaha's scheme of things. ....... Manjhi, who had been in a non-confrontational mode since meeting Amit Shah on June 12, is now showing his belligerent bones. "Everyone has a right to respect. If I do not get a respectable offer from NDA, I will have my options open," he said. The former Bihar Chief Minister is believed to have asked for 40 Assembly seats. ...... The BJP cannot afford to let Manjhi go and fight independently. The BJP party knows that the goodwill it enjoyed last year has vanished into thin air, and the electoral opponent it faced last year has become stronger than earlier, it has its task cut out. The party think tank is also apprehensive that while BJP may find it difficult to further raise their 2014 vote share, the partners, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP that won six of the seven seats it contested and Upendra Kushwaha RLSP that won three out of three in the Lok Sabha polls, may not be able to repeat their performance in the Assembly polls. So, adding Manjhi to NDA is crucial, as of the 16 per cent Dalits, Manjhi is said to have considerable sway over 5-6 per cent Mushars.

Amit Shah vs Prashant Kishor: Who will be the wizard of Bihar election?

The forthcoming assembly election in Bihar is arguably the most important state election during Narendra Modi’s tenure as prime minister. Bihar’s result will have an impact on the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2017. If the BJP is unable to fly its flag in Patna and Lucknow, it will have frittered away the chance to reap long-term benefits from the Modi wave of 2014. ...... While Twitter and Facebook are the faces of social media campaigning, most of its social media focus was Whatsapp. Technology entrepreneur Rajesh Jain’s collection of phone numbers of people sympathetic to the Modi campaign (through those missed calls) was used to bombard those numbers with daily visual messages via Whatsapp. Modi’s speeches across the country had talking points from the CAG, based on feedback from where he was going to address the rally. The Statue of Unity project, which collected iron from people across the country to build a Sardar Patel statue, was the CAG’s idea. Modi sat through many of these strategy meetings of the CAG for hours, and was particularly impressed by the hologram idea. ...... The CAG’s core group of members kept expanding throughout the election. By the end of the election they numbered were 672, apart from the thousands of their volunteers spread across the states. ....... Former associates of Kishor, who worked with the CAG, say Kishor felt he didn’t getting his due in Modi government. He declined a post in the Prime Minister’s office as he felt he deserved better. Kishor and his Citizens for Accountable Governance had hoped to be given a high-profile role in policymaking and implementation in the new government. ......... (Despite this falling out with the party, Kishor is said to maintain regular contact with the prime minister.) ........... Kishor was so close to the Gujarat chief minister that he lived with Modi in his official residence in Gandhinagar . His body, the CAG, made decisions small and big that BJP leaders and workers had to follow. ...... The division of labour between the BJP and CAG was clear. The BJP, led by Amit Shah, worked on electoral strategies down to the booth level, doing much of the traditional work that it takes to win an election. Behind the scenes however, Kishor and his team were acting as force multipliers, packaging and branding Modi in a presidential style election. ......... BJP President Amit Shah owes his elevation as BJP president to the credit accorded to him for the election win, and Shah’s camp seemed to feel threatened by Kishor. ............ The battle between Shah and Kishor playing out in Bihar is about more than just personal rivalry. This is a clash of two different models of electioneering: The old-fashioned party loyalist and the professional campaign manager. ...... As he did for Modi, Prashant Kishor has set up a body for the Nitish campaign, called I-PAC, the India Political Action Committee. It has hundreds of members, divided across several teams, working like a corporate machine. I-PAC members dress in black, a move darker from the blue kurtas CAG members wore......... The singularly important factor in winning an election in India is building the “hawa” – the popular perception that this party is likely to win. Prashant Kishor’s method uses data, technology, branding and marketing techniques for hawa-building. Already for the Nitish campaign, there’s “parcha pe charcha” (discussion over pamphlets), 400 trucks with LED monitors and other gizmos are organizing 40,000 village meetings across Bihar. Nitish has launched a “Badh Chala Bihar – 2025” campaign, the subtle message of which is that he has a long-term vision for Bihar’s development....... Kishor is a former United Nations official who wants to work with politicians on policy issues and is ideologically agnostic. He began working with Modi on policy, but soon got drafted into the task of winning the 2012 Gujarat assembly election, and then 2014. Now he has been recruited to work that same magic for Nitish Kumar in Bihar, but the outcome, even if Nitish wins, may not be all that different for Kishor. ........ “Kishor and his team are keeping tabs on all of Kumar’s ministers to make sure they are actually hitting the campaign trail. Kishor’s army of youth dressed in black keeps checking on the locations of senior JD(U) leaders through mobile phone.” This is bound to make party leaders unhappy in the long run.

Lalu Prasad Yadav , Nitish Kumar to be hit hardest if caste data released: Ram Vilas Paswan

the caste-based data in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), the first in eight decades since 1912.

Ahead of Bihar elections, Nitish Kumar understands growing importance of women voters



Bihar Assembly elections: Amit Shah pits Nitish Kumar against Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi versus Nitish Kumar, incumbent Prime Minister versus incumbent chief minister..... If the NDA is not voted to power I can assure you there will be no electricity, no roads, no employment, no schools, no industry. Only Narendra Modi can get you all of that."