Bihar Election Result 2020: What a Tejashwi Yadav victory could mean for the state

LIVE updates of the Bihar Assembly election result 2020. RJD-led Mahagathbandhan is taking on the BJP-JDU’s NDA alliance

The Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav is taking on incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) (JDU) in the 2020 Bihar Assembly Election.

So what does the 31-year-old offer that the likes of veteran Kumar, who has been ruling the state for 15 years, cannot?

In the poll manifesto of the RJD-Congress alliance, Yadav has promised that jobs will be given to 10 lakh youth in the first cabinet meeting.

This seems to be a key issue for most voters. According to a Quint report, a CVoter survey from the first week of October found that close to 50 percent of respondents in Bihar said that unemployment was the most important issue for them in this election. This was an increase of close to 25 percentage points from the survey two weeks ago.

This of course isn't a promise that came out of thin air, RJD leaders who spoke to Indian Express insist. "When we found there were 4.5 lakh pending vacancies in the Bihar government and need to create another 5.5 lakh vacancies to match the national average, we came up with the idea of 10 lakh jobs. Now the BJP is trying to copy us," they told the daily.

As far as education is concerned,  the manifesto says the parties promise to fill vacancies of teachers in schools on a war footing. Yadav has also mentioned that the expense of candidates appearing for government examination will be borne by this government.

On improving the affairs of the state, he also promises that infrastructure will be made at a world-class status. In addition to this, the manifesto also declared that the future RJD government would increase the budget on education to 22 percent of the total budget.

On the matter of the controversial farm bill, Yadav in the manifesto has also promised to do away with these "anti-farm bills", and replace them with a new bill during the Vidhan Sabha's first session.

The RJD announced that it would give priority to agriculture, industry, and education if voted to power. It also stressed increasing the income of farmers and waiving Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loan taken by the cultivators till 2020. Further, it vowed to purchase grains from the farmers at an enhanced Minimum Support Price that would include bonuses.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took jabs at Yadav,  warning voters that Bihar could face a double whammy "if proponents of 'jungle raj'" returned to power during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“You can imagine what will happen to the funds for COVID-19 if they (opposition) come to power... Given their past record, what else can people of Bihar expect from the ‘Yuvraj (prince)’ of ‘jungle raj’? You know them better than I do," PM Modi said, without naming former deputy chief minister Yadav.

In response, Yadav told reporters, "He is the country's Prime Minister, he can say anything, I don't want to react to that. But he came to Bihar, he could have spoken about a special package, unemployment, more important issues."