War of words escalates during campaigning for 4th phase polls

The war of words escalated between NDA and grand secular alliance with the former's "fireworks in Pakistan" remark evoking strong reaction from the rivals during the campaign, which ended today for the fourth phase of voting for 55 Bihar Assembly seats on November 1.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi missing from the campaign for the major part of this duration due to 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit in Delhi, BJP President Amit Shah and Finance minister Arun Jaitley campaigned actively to make up for his absence.
Shah, who addressed half-a-dozen rallies on an average in the past three days stirred the already boiling political pot with his "fireworks in Pakistan" remark at an election rally at Raxual in East Champaran yesterday that if BJP loses in Bihar, Diwali will be celebrated in Pakistan.

He had appealed to the people to ensure BJP's victory "so that disappointment descends in Pakistan".
The remark evoked strong reaction from rivals who described it as an "attempt to communalise the elections" and the grand secular alliance delegation knocking the doors of Election Commission against the "attempt to communalise" polling in the fourth and fifth phases in which many constituencies have a sizable Muslim population.
RJD President Lalu Prasad slammed his BJP counterpart linking the controversy with the pride of the state saying the remark was an affront on the citizens of Bihar particularly backwards, EBCs, dalits and minorities who are "firmly rooting" for secular alliance.

Considering the importance of the elections, the Prime Minister addressed two rallies at Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur before the campaign ended this evening at 5 PM.

Continuing with his earlier attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, the PM again alluded to "sinister plan" of Nitish and Lalu to carve out 5 per cent quota from OBC, SC and ST to give to a particular community.
Besides, regular counter-offensive from Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad to NDA leaders, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi came to Bihar for one day to campaign in the fourth round and attacked the PM.

While campaigning for this phase, the Prime Minister and his rivals fired salvos at each other taking cue from Bollywood films.
Reacting to Nitish Kumar parodying a poem against him on the lines of a song of from Amir Khan's movie "3 Idiots", PM took a potshots at Kumar for choosing the song from that film as three parties JD(U), RJD and Congress had joined hand to form an anti-BJP grouping.
Rahul Gandhi and other grand secular alliance leaders poked fun at the PM and linked him with the character of "Virus" in the mega blockbuster. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma

Swaraj, Uma Bharti and cinestar and BJP MP from Mathura Hema Malini campaigned for NDA candidates.
Actor Ajay Devgn also extended his helping hand to BJP candidates in some constituencies.
Hema Malini and Ajay Devgn tried to add glamour in the absence of an upset actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha.
Sinha popularly known as "Bihari Babu" came to Patna on October 28 to cast his vote but did not miss an opportunity to attack a section of BJP leaders for "conspiring" against him to keep him away from Bihar poll.
Polling for 55 seats in the fourth phase on November 1 will take place in the seven districts of Muzaffarpur, Siwan, Sheohar, West Champaran, East Champaran, Sitamarhi and Gopalganj.

A total of 1,46,93,294 electors are eligible to cast vote in 13,535 polling stations to select their representatives from among 776 candidates in the fray.
Prominent personalities whose fate would be decided in the fourth phase are senior Nitish Kumar minister Ramai Ram (Bochaha, SC seat), Ranju Geeta (Bajpatti) and Manoj Kushwaha (Kudni).
Considering the results of last Assembly elections in 2010, stakes are high for BJP in the fourth phase of polls.
While BJP had won 26 out of the total 55 seats of this phase in 2010, JD(U) had emerged victorious in 24, RJD 2 and Independents 3.

But, in the changed scenario, from grand secular alliance camp, RJD of Lalu Prasad has fielded its candidates from a maximum 26 constituencies this time followed by JD(U) 21 and Congress 8.
From NDA, BJP has fielded its nominees in 42 seats, LJP of Ramvilas Paswan 5 and Hindustanti Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) 4 each.