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| Lalu Prasad addresses a rally at Majhi and Nitish Kumar campaigns at Ekma on Thursday ahead of the Maharajganj bypoll. Pictures by Rakesh K Singh |
Maharajganj, May 30: Style, chiselled to perfection by politicians over the years, is not easy to change, especially during campaigns in the run-up to a bypoll.
Nobody has changed — be it Lalu Prasad or Nitish Kumar.
Road shows on an open jeep under the blazing sun, impromptu stops, raising folded hands here and there, drinking sattu sherbet, eating paan (betel leaf) and khaini (chewing tobacco) at roadside stalls and whipping out a hand-held microphone to blare out: “Lalten chhap par vote dena (vote on lantern symbol)” — are all characteristic features of the RJD chief’s campaign at Maharajganj, which goes to the polls on Sunday.
Voters of Majhi, Narpalia, Tajpur, Mubarakpur and Rasulpur watched Lalu’s extravaganza. Khaini, paan and sattu sellers rejoiced as Lalu mingled with them and conversed in their lingo.
In sharp contrast, the chief minister’s style of campaigning is quite methodical, clean, businesslike and free from exaggerations and rusticity. He moves out in closed SUVs, escorted by vehicles full of securitymen and gets down to speak from a well-organised dais fitted with coolers and fans to beat the heat.
While Lalu’s speeches are laced with trenchant words, direct allegations that Nitish was “deceiving my voters”, free use of words like atyachar, anachar, vyabhichar (atrocity, illegality and immorality) to describe the “features” of Nitish’s rule, the chief minister exercises caution while choosing his words; he seldom names Lalu in his campaign speeches. “Hum ne garibon ko awaj diya tha. Nitish ne dhokha se hamara vote chhin liya. Es bar sikha deingein (I had given voice to the poor people. Nitish took away my votes by the use of deception. I will teach him a lesson this time),” Lalu said while addressing a rally at Ekma on the Chhapra-Daraonda stretch.
On the other hand, Nitish uses cool words but does not shy away from cutting sharp jibes on his opponents. “Anger and acerbic words are signs of frustration. You (voters) must maintain peace, harmony, unity and brotherhood and turn up at polling booths to cast your vote; that is the only way for you to express your opinion...and that is the only way for us to measure our strength,” Nitish told a motley crowd at Isuapur yesterday.
Congress plea
State Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra sought the Election Commission’s intervention into the orders passed by the district administration of Siwan and Saran to extern hundreds of political workers of non-NDA parties, including Congress, in order to influence the Maharajganj bypoll.
On the other hand, Union ministers Rajiv Shukla and Sachin Pilot iterated that the UPA government was extending all assistance to Bihar for its development. “A special assistance of Rs 12,000 crore was given to Bihar recently,” they said during a rally in support of Jitendra Swami, the Congress candidate.
Prabhunath FIR
Acting district and sessions judge S.K. Pandey today stayed the arrest of the RJD candidate, Prabhunath Singh, till June 6. District agriculture officer Bharat Singh had lodged an FIR on Monday alleging that Prabunath had misbehaved with a trainee IAS officer and threatened him.