Bihar Polls: Nitish tells state to choose him ('Bihari') over 'outsider' Modi

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave as good as he got on Friday, hitting back at Prime Minister Modi’s “barbs” with barely 48 hours to go before Bihar votes for 243 seats in a five phase election. Kumar appealed to voters at Begusarai district to not let outsiders lead them, says The Indian Express.

Earlier surveys have been rather conclusive in predicting the success of the BJP-led alliance in the upcoming Bihar election, but the CNN-IBN Axis survey predicts that the Nitish Kumar government may just get to stay on in the state.

The Bihar polls are to be held in five phases starting from 12 October ending on 5 November. The counting will be on 8 November.

The survey predicts that the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance will finish with 137 seats, the BJP and its allies will finish with 95 seats and other parties will finish 11 seats.

Nitish Kumar spoke at Ulao village, hardly a kilometer from the venue of Modi’s rally a day ago. Party insiders admitted that this was not a coincidence – that replying to PM’s barbs was high on the agenda -and Kumar mentioned him first three minutes into his speech.

However, what was more interesting were his closing remarks: “….Bihar will progress on its own efforts. What will these outsiders do? I want to ask you a question, who will take Bihar forward, Bihari or bahari?….If a Bihari is to take Bihar forward, then a real Bihari is here before you. We don’t need any of these ahari-bahari. Say goodbye to all these outsiders.”

Read The Indian Express report here.