Patna, April 05: Congress, fighting UPA partners RJD
and LJP in Bihar following failure of the seat-sharing talks,
is banking on the clean image of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
among other issues to woo the voters in the state.
The party has fielded its old warhorse former state
Congress president Sadanand Singh from the Bhagalpur
constituency against BJP nominee Shahnawaz Hussain and RJD
candidate Shakuni Chaudhary to revive and reinvent itself in
the state.
Congress state unit chief and a former assembly Speaker
Singh, is banking on the clean image of the Prime Minister and
highlighting the achievements of UPA government to emerge
victorious.
"The Union Government has been able to bring down the
inflation and has taken several pro-poor steps like NREGA,
Bharat Nirman etc," Singh said.
Former Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain, who
lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections to RJD`s Taslimuddin in
Kishanganj constituency, is anticipating improvement in his
winning margin from Bhagalpur this time and counting on
development work done by incumbent JD (U)-BJP government.
"Infrastructure development carried out by Bihar
government in the last three years and marked improvement in
the law and order situation has created a wave in the favour
of NDA," Hussain, who is BJP`s chief of minority cell, said.
Moreover, the so called secular front is divided this
time which will help BJP in improving its margin remarkably,
he said.
Hussain, the lone Muslim face in NDA government, defeated
RJD`s Shakuni Chaudhary by 55,611 votes in by-polls held in
2006. The seat went for by-election due to resignation of
Sushil Kumar Modi from Lok Sabha to become Deputy Chief
Minister of Bihar.
Meanwhile, runner up candidate of the last election,
RJD`s Chaudhary is hopeful of his comfortable victory.
Alliance with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will help me to
win over two lakh votes, he said.
He rubbished the tall-claims made by the BJP candidate,
saying corruption has increased manifold in the Nitish Kumar’s
rule and there is anarchy and total lawlessness across the
state.
Though the political parties have promised to address
various issues in their manifesto, none of the candidates have
raised local issues like the impact of the global slowdown on
the silk industry of Bhagalpur.
Bhagalpur constituency has a population of 24,30,331 as
per 2001 census. Of this over 15 lakh electorate would decide
the fate of Hussain, Chaudhary, Singh and many more on April
30.
Bureau Report
