People from Bihar living in different parts of the northeast are intimately monitoring the on-going assembly polls in the state.
Thousands of people from Bihar are living in several northeastern states, especially in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, and engaging themselves in various trades and diverse works.
Most of them are reluctant to go to their home state to cast votes as they would lose their daily income for several days.
"We want a good government in Bihar as the state crucially needs superior governance for the economic upliftment of the backward people. We hate caste-based politics," said Mahindar Kumar Mahato, who sells a mixture of nuts and peas in Agartala.
A resident of Vaishali district in Bihar, Mahato told IANS: "If we go to cast our votes in Bihar we would lose income for several days. A negligible number of people from different northeastern states have gone to their home districts to cast their votes and to see their family members."
According to the Bihari people in northeast, in this year's assembly election, corruption, development and price rise are playing a vital role in deciding the fate of political parties. These issues might affect the voting pattern, they added.
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"In previous elections in Bihar, caste-based issues were very vital matters, but this time people want good all-weather roads, good health services, quality education and creation of job opportunities," said Raju Kumar Yadav, a resident of Purnia (Sadar), one of the seven constituencies of Purnia district which would vote on November 5 in the last phase of five-phased Bihar assembly polls.
Raju Kumar Yadav, who makes linen items, told IANS: "Corruption should be checked and employment opportunities and educational facilities should be improved. Infrastructure, including roads and development, should be top agenda of political parties."
Suraj Sheikh, 37, from Kishanganj in Bihar, a Muslim-dominated district, works as a sub-contractor on different projects of the Northeast Frontier Railway. He is based at Maligaon in Guwahat and stays in a rented house. He came to Assam 10 years ago and is trying to enrol himself in the state's electoral list.
Dropping out of college due to poverty, he initially worked as a manager and site overseer for a local contractor and learned ropes. He has been taking sub-contracts for the past two years.
"We were a big family, four elder sisters and two brothers. Development in Bihar had been weak. In our village there were hardly a handful of graduates. I married here (Assam), but to a Bihari girl. Now Assam is my home and elections in Bihar have no meaning because the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) would be same the like Lalu (Prasad Yadav) or Nitish (Kumar), Sheikh told IANS.
"Yes Nitish (Kumar) did good work, but not across Bihar. I am against communal and caste-based politics played out in Bihar by some political parties."
Rickshaw puller Raghuram Paswan said: "Due to abject poverty I have migrated to Guwahati many years back. We live in a small shanty where we five rickshaw pullers stay - all from Khagaria district of Bihar."
"Our village has seen a bit of development these days but we are uneducated and have no work in modern Bihar. I have been here in Guwahati for nine years; before that I was in Tinsukia in upper Assam, pulling rickshaw for 11 years there before ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom) militant started killing Biharis."
"We (Bihari) are still considered outsiders in some parts of the northeastern states. As we are not living Bihar for many years, so it is pointless to go and vote there, though Nitish Kumar is my favourite," Paswan added.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)