GAYA, India, 23 January 2005 — It will be the theatrics of firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharati versus those of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad during the campaign for the Bihar Assembly elections. Burying their past hassles with her, the BJP top brass has allotted Bharati prime slot in the party’s campaign program. She will spend nearly 20 days in crisscrossing central and north Bihar. Bharati’s meetings will far exceed those of any other BJP leader.
Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will canvass for three days, party chief Lal Krishna Advani for six, Sushma Swaraj for seven, Murli Manohar Joshi for six, Pramod Mahajan for eight, Jaswant Singh for two and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and another top backward leader, Kalyan Singh, for four days.
The deal appears to be that if Bharati succeeds in demolishing Lalu on his home ground, she would be rehabilitated in Madhya Pradesh politics.
But how can Bharati help the BJP in Bihar when she neither belongs to the state nor can talk the way Lalu does? The party feels that she being a low caste Hindu and a religious icon will help her counter the political theatrics of the RJD heavyweight.
The BJP also plans to focus on Congress, particularly Sonia Gandhi. And Bharati is considered the best bet to keep the fire on her.
Poll Violence Looms
Authorities are trying to make sure next month’s elections are staged with minimum violence.
Altogether 640,695 voters will exercise their franchise in three assembly constituencies of extremist-infested Jehanabad, adjoining Gaya district. Of these, the number of female voters is 307,314. The district administration has declared 308 polling booths “super sensitive” while 266 have been identified as “sensitive.”
The administration has promised to conduct violence-free polling in the area, although it admitted that would be difficult. Even after, the administration’s promises, voters are afraid of exercising their franchise.
“It will be a blood-battle, not a ballot-battle,” one of them said.
Many fear that if they go to the polling stations, they will become the target of extremist groups active in the area.
The influence of the Maoist Communist Committee (MCC) is felt in Jehanabad, Gaya, Masaurhi, Nawada and other adjoining areas. During the elections, they become more active and either call for a boycott or ask the voters to vote for the candidates of their choice.
