The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), buoyed by positive exit poll predictions, which give the party an edge in the just-concluded Assembly elections in Bihar, has warned its workers and supporters to maintain discipline on the counting day, whatever the outcome of the election. In a tweet on Sunday, the party said there should be no use of firecrackers or rowdy behaviour and civility must be maintained towards the rival parties.
“On November 10, counting of votes will take place. Whatever be the result, we have to behave well, maintain peace. No worker should use colours, firecrackers etc. There should not be any indiscipline in the excitement of a victory,” read a rough translation of the party’s tweet in Hindi.
In a second tweet, the RJD asked its workers to keep in mind that irrespective of the results “at the centre of your politics is public upliftment and people’s convenience”.
The cautionary note gets relevance in the wake of the NDA campaign that often invoked the feat of “jungle raj” the RJD came back to power, reminding how things were chaotic in the Lalu-Rabri era
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dubbed Tejashwi Yadav—the 31-year-old CM candidate of the RJD, Congress and Left alliance—as “Jungle Raj ka Yuvraj”.
Lalu Prasad Yadav is currently in jail after being found guilty in the fodder scam.
All every exit poll has given the RJD-led alliance an edge over the NDA. In the poll of polls, after taking into consideration all the exit polls on the Bihar election, the NDA is down to double digits at just 99 seats, while the opposition Mahagathbandhan is slated to get 128. The majority mark is 122 for Bihar’s 243 seats.
The India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicts a clean sweep by the Mahagathbandhan. It has predicted 139-161 seats for the Congress-RJD-Left alliance while predicts a sombre 69-91 seats for the NDA which is led by the JDU-BJP. CNN News 18-Today’s Chanakya went a step further to give the Mahagathbandhan, a whopping 180 seats. It has predicted just 55 seats for the BJP-JDU-HAMS-VIP alliance. Even Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat exit poll has given a split verdict with a clear edge to the Mahagathbandhan which it predicts to get 118-138 seats. Meanwhile the NDA, it says, will get 91 to 117 seats. However, the Times Now-CVoter poll has predicted a hung Assembly in Bihar with no side getting a clear majority. It predicted 116 for the NDA, 120 for the Mahagathbandhan, one for the LJP and 6 for others. Meanwhile, NewsX-DVResearch exit poll has also claimed a split verdict but where the Mahagathbandhan has a slight edge. It has given 108 to 123 seats to the RJD-Congress alliance while 110 to 117 to the JDU-BJP alliance. The LJP has reason to cheer, at least as far as this exit poll is concerned, which has predicted somewhere between 4 to 10 seats for the party and between 8 to 23 for others.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS