A HIGH VOLTAGE BATTLE

The Opposition was the first off the block in Bihar with its campaign against Vote Chori.

- PRIYA SAHGAL

The campaign was a high profile one led by the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi and saw almost the entire INDIA bloc dropping in for support. Indeed it was a remarkable show of strength with Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, MK Stalin making an appearance while other parties from the INDIA bloc sent representatives.

It set the narrative for the Bihar polls going, but the problem with that was that the entire tamasha (show) ended with the disappearance of Rahul Gandhi. For the entire duration of the yatra, as long as Rahul Gandhi was present the campaign retained its momentum. But it lost steam post his return to Delhi. After that talks about cracks within the Mahagathbandhan over seat sharing began to surface.

Tejashwi carried on with his own campaign but his narrative gave more prominence to local issues, development and unemployment than to the voter revision exercise. Soon after, the NDA has launched its campaign turning the entire voter revision (SIR) exercise into an attempt to weed out infiltrators, raising the old bogey about ghuspaith once again, making the entire revision exercise as an attempt to weed out usurpers. And with Prashant Kishor