The high-stake Bihar Assembly elections began today in 49 seats spread over 10 districts. This is the first phase of election, which will be followed by four more phases. Voting began at 7 AM today. Outcome of Bihar elections is a prestige issue for the two main competitors - Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar, said Sanjay Kumar, professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. Most of the pre-poll surveys are tilted towards a BJP win in Bihar. Post the Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won all the elections with an exception of Delhi Assembly election. The loss in the latter fueled rumours of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi losing his shine with the voters. However, a win in Bihar elections will have a positive moral impact on the party members to push for reforms in the Parliament, Kumar told CNBC-TV18. On the other hand, if BJP loses, it could strengthen the rumours of Modi losing his popularity and could impact the four upcoming state elections next year. The rallies by the parties could make a difference as the parties will try to woo the 12-15 percent floating or undecided voters, he added.
“BJP will emerge as an eminent voice in Bihar irrespective of whether they win or lose in the Bihar elections,” Anil Padmanabhan Deputy Managing Editor of Mint said.
The Bihar elections are tightly contested and attention needs to be paid on other factors like reasonable turnout so far and body language of the contestants, Padmanabhan said.
Modi, on one hand, is an aggressive leader and a crowd-puller, which cannot be said for Lalu Prasad Yadav or Nitish Kumar, he added.
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