3 city leaders playing major role in Bihar polls
   Date :22-Oct-2020

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■ By Vikas Vaidya :
 
EVERYBODY is curious about the outcome of Bihar elections scheduled in November. Lot depends upon the results of the elections. On one hand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Janata Dal (United) ( JDU) is eying retention of power, while on the other, rest of the parties have joined hands to defeat the BJP-JDU alliance. Shiv Sena, having its base in Maharashtra, also has jumped in the fray. Nagpur is playing very important role in Bihar election as three key leaders from different parties, hailing from the city are supporting their colleagues in their respective parties to clinch victory in the polls. The big name is Devendra Fadnavis, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and now Leader of Opposition. Fadnavis is acting as BJP in-charge in Bihar elections. Krupal Tumane, Member of Parliament from Ramtek has been made the Star campaigner by Shiv Sena.
 
Avinash Pandey, who has earned name as man of crisis management, worked as Chairman of Screening Committee in Bihar for Congress. Whichever party wins the elections, the above three leaders’ contribution will not be forgotten. Devendra Fadnavis has an edge over the other two leaders on several grounds. It is Fadnavis who brought victory for BJP in Maharashtra in Lok Sabha, Assembly and Municipal Corporation elections singlehandedly. Starting from deciding the seats to the planning of campaign meeting, everything was decided by him in Maharashtra. Party must have decided to bestow the larger responsibility on his shoulder as Bihar victory will be the prestige issue for it. Fadnavis has one more advantage. During Maharashtra Assembly elections, Bhupendra Yadav, BJP General Secretary who hails from Bihar was the in-charge for the polls. Both Fadnavis and Yadav established good tuning between themselves. It will help his party as well as JDU at large.
 
Avinash Pandey, a former MP has in recent years earned name as an excellent negotiator, intervener and man of crisis management. He has resolved some issues that were troubling his party in Assam, in Rajasthan. Now party showed faith in him and sent him to Bihar. Here Congress has joined hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). Earlier Congress thought of contesting all the 243 seats but due to the alliance Congress has to be satisfied with 70 seats. As far as Shiv Sena and Krupal Tumane are concerned, Bihar elections have given second opportunity to both. Shiv Sena is trying hard to establish itself as a national party, with that view the Party had contested on 28 seats in last Bihar elections. This time it has given tickets to 58 candidates. Tumane had gone to Bihar in last elections and Shiv Sena has shown faith in him again.
 
‘The Hitavada’ spoke to all three leaders who are confident of their respective party’s win. Fadnavis said, “Nobody has doubt that BJP-JDU alliance would come to power again, because unlike other parties our plans were made in advance. Starting from the alliance, nomination of candidates, the campaign plan everything was ready and there was no confusion. We are much ahead than the others while Congress and other parties are still struggling with their equations.” According to Fadnavis, their candidate of Chief Ministership also is predecided.
 
At the same time he denied that Chirag Paswan issue would create any problem for the alliance. Avinash Pandey pointed out, “Ranjit Surjewala and Mohan Prakash are spearheading the campaign for Congress in Bihar elections. Congress has made a meticulous plan. It never acted adamantly that would help the party to win maximum seats. People in Bihar are unhappy the way Nitish Kumar-led Government implemented various policies. Now people are facing several issues after the part of state suffered due to flood but Government failed to address the issue. This and other issues would provide edge to Congress and its alliance.” Krupal Tumane is the Star campaigner for Sena.
 
Though the party is not expecting grand victories, it wants to establish its name in every state. He feels Chirag Paswan factor would help BJP in large extent. “I am sure, BJP will do the same thing in Bihar as it did in Maharashtra. It will ditch JDU to snatch the power for which it will use Chirag factor. We are optimistic of improving our performance this time. Here we are not having any alliance with Congress unlike we have in Maharashtra,” expressed Tumane. Avinash Pandey agreed with Tumane, but he said that sans alliance, Congress would be ready to help Shiv Sena if it requires any. According to one senior leader, there is no point in the allegations by Pandey and Tumane regarding ditching by BJP. But this leader said, “The situation has given an upper hand to BJP as in most number of seats allotted to JDU, the opponents are RJD candidates who won in 2015 elections.