Muslims, Yadavs will count in Bihar's final round

It is finally the last round of a bloody, acerbic, raucous slugfest, in which the choicest of abuses were used to target the opponents. The loudspeakers finally fell silent and helicopter blades stopped rotating at 5 PM on November 3 and now the fate of 827 candidates including several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government is in the hands of over 1.55 crore voters.

With a large concentration of Muslims, both the rivals tried to give a few communal colour to the campaign. Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar is also confident of making a dent in his stronghold Katihar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi stuck to his damage control mode by hurling charges that the Grand Alliance was out to dilute the reservation for the downtrodden among Hindus. "Amit Shah has been working overtime for more than two weeks in the region", a BJP source said.

Muslims have a big presence in all the districts voting in the fifth phase. "In order that no such instance is repeated on the date of poll (November 5) and no untoward incident takes place because of any inflammatory or hate advertisements, the Commission, in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of Constitution and other powers enabling it in this behalf directs that no political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in newspapers on November 5 unless the contents of the advertisement proposed to be published are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC Committee". Out of seven districts of this border space, Kishanganj, Araria and Purnea districts have been recognized as delicate. JD(U) candidates are trying their luck in 25 seats, RJD in 20 and Congress in 12. He also made it clear that if EC failed to act, they would approach President Pranab Mukherjee. Then the JDU and BJP were in alliance while the RJD was contesting in partnership with the LJP.

In the seemanchal area of Bihar which is going to polls tomorrow, Asaduddin Owaisi has definitely created a mark for his party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), especially among the Muslim youth.

Pappu Yadav has represented different Lok Sabha seats from the region in the Lok Sabha on five occasions. He holds considerable clout in the region and has the potential to cause serious damage to the others in the fray.

The grand alliance heads optimistically into the closing round of a bitter Bihar election, banking on the high concentration of Muslims in Seemanchal and on Lalu Prasad's base Yadav votes elsewhere. Pappu has put up candidates in 40 of the 57 seats while Owaisi after a much publicised rally on August 16 in Kishanganj scaled down his ambitions and his candidates are contesting in just six seats.