Nitish sets the aggressive tone for third phase

PATNA: With the three parliamentary seats (Patna Saheb, Pataliputra and Nalanda) of the fourth phase almost equally poised between the four major
players (BJP, JD(U), RJD and Congress), the third phase of polling for 11 seats has taken the form of the sensational Super Over of IPL seen between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday night.

The star campaigners of the contending parties might not show the verbal aggro of the first two rounds, but the aggression was already there. CM Nitish Kumar, normally not given to talking about victory or loss with respect to specific seats, set the tone on Thursday.

He, with regard to Ram Vilas Paswan's fate in Hajipur, said, "satahattar mein wahan Ram Vilas ke jeet ki aandhi chal rahi thi. Is baar unke haar ki aandhi chal rahi hai (in 1977, there was storm of his victory. This time, the storm is for his defeat)."

The concern of Nitish during the third round is understandable. He is looking for the swing to sustain in favour of his party nominee Monazir Hasan for the Begusarai seat that CPI is out to win to ensure that its epithet of being "Bihar's Leningrad" is restored. Not only that, JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav is contesting from Madhepura, while the Munger seat, where the party's state chief Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh is in battle, has already become a matter of honour.

Indeed, Nitish's moment of reckoning is around also for the fact that Digvijay Singh alias Dada, who was denied ticket, is in fray in Banka constituency as an Independent candidate, while official JD(U) nominee Damodar Raut was reportedly unwilling to challenge him initially, since Dada was his guru or mentor. Kishanganj seat has become significant, since a JD(U) victory there would show if his moves taken for the minority welfare, including shifting of AMU extension centre from Katihar to Kishanganj, have brought any political dividend to him.

The pundits might say that any drive to win an election has its own grammar, but that, indeed, could be the reason why Nitish has begun talking in terms of specific seats. For, the 2009 parliamentary polls, apart from being the dampener or decider of the aspirations of NDA's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, are also a test for Nitish.

For him, the "lurking defeat" of Ram Vilas Paswan at Hajipur is as much desirable as is his hope to see that voters also uproot the "khoonta" and "darwaja" of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, as he put it on Thursday. Now, it is time for Nitish to come from the general to specifics of the game.

Source : Times of India