Senior NDA leaders, including BJP president Lal Krishna Advani, strike a pose at Patna airport. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Oct. 16: Campaigning for the first phase of elections ended today as the BJP and the Congress sharpened their attacks on each other while Nitish Kumar, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan hopped between constituencies in a last-minute effort to impress voters.

Polling for 57 seats, mostly in the Naxalite-affected central and south Bihar, will take place on October 18 while voters in four constituencies of Gaya district will decide their legislators on October 21.

BJP president Lal Krishna Advani opened the attack early this morning, hoping Congress chief Sonia Gandhi would have elaborated her blame on the erstwhile NDA government for ignoring the development of Bihar. The UPA chairperson had targeted the NDA yesterday during her speeches in Bihar.

?If blaming us means that we tried to free Bihar from the misgovernance of the past many years, it is all right. We even tried to use Article 356 in Bihar but the Congress prevented the NDA government from doing so. The Congress saved the maladministration then and by now it has multiplied manifold,? Advani said before starting his campaign.

By evening, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh was frantically adding teeth to the attack made by Sonia Gandhi as he read out statistics to show that investments made by the UPA government in Bihar were higher than those of its predecessor for a similar period.

?As much as Rs 4,000 crore is lying with the Bihar government. The work has not shown on the ground because of the model code of conduct during two quick elections,? Singh said.

Advani said the results of the Bihar elections would significantly impact national politics because the NDA?s victory would mark the end of the ?bad patch? that the BJP has been undergoing ?in the media? for some time.

?This bad patch, however, is not an index of public opinion for the BJP. This is being clearly reflected in the recent election results. Our good performance in the Ahmedabad municipal polls and before that in Kerala and Chhattisgarh is indicative of the new trend. Add Bihar to these and the cumulative impact will be big,? the BJP chief said.

The AICC general secretary, on the other hand, faced a difficult time defending his party?s ties with the RJD, especially after Sonia Gandhi had highlighted the non-performance of Bihar governments in February.

?We do not say that the RJD does not have its weaknesses. But then leaders like George Fernandes played a role in installing Laloo Prasad as chief minister. The CPI is targeting us but it forgets that it was with the RJD till February. The larger issue for us is to prevent the communal forces from spreading their influence,? Singh said.

Advani was uncomfortable answering queries on a good number of history-sheeters contesting as Janata Dal (United) candidates.

?No such person is our (BJP?s) candidate. I know about some such people being JD(U) nominees. But I am sure Nitish Kumar will take care of the situation and such people will not be made ministers,? he added.

Prominent BJP campaigner Shatrughan Sinha has not been canvassing for the party because people with a criminal past were made NDA candidates. Advani said he has already spoken to Sinha and that they will hold a meeting soon.