Jaitley contests Nitish claim on women vote

The Minister said the JD(U) government’s failure to create employment within the State had seen large-scale migration of men.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the higher turnout of women voters in the first two phases of the Bihar Assembly polls was not due to heightened political awareness but because of the Nitish Kumar government’s failure to stem migration.

Speaking to The Hindu , the Minister said the JD(U) government’s failure to create employment within the State had seen large-scale migration of men.

“They [the women] are voting not because they are more politically aware but because there has been a government failure to stop migration by creating enough jobs in Bihar,” he said.

Mr. Jaitley has said the “model” of the Janata Dal (United) that provided an alternative to RJD chief Lalu Prasad “has ground to a halt after a point — some roads, schools were built, started”.

“The Janata Dal(U) has become a non-ideological entity. Its political flexibility is its opportunism. That makes the mahagathbandhan [grand alliance] unstable,” he told The Hindu. “The dominant component of the MGB [grand alliance] is the RJD that is also responsible for the state of Bihar. As far as vote strength and cadre is concerned, the RJD’s political support is larger. The feeling that they will have a critical say in the alliance engenders fear,” he said, explaining the reasons for his optimism of an NDA victory.