With the three phases of the Assembly poll apparently bringing no cheer for the BJP-led NDA, the fourth phase poll on Sunday for 55 seats could be best considered as “Cape of Good Hope” for the party. In the fifth phase, the Nitish-Lalu led grand alliance seems to have an edge in the Muslim-Yadav dominated areas of Seemanchal and Kosi.
Though the BJP has claimed it has got “unprecedented and extraordinary” response in the first three phases, poll analysts observed that the trend “was not encouraging for it.”
“With certain missteps, the BJP yielded space to the grand alliance,” a poll observer told The Hindu .
Now, the fourth phase poll for 55 seats is being considered as significantly the most crucial leg of election for the BJP. Altogether seven districts — West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Gopalgunj and Siwan — will go to the polls on Sunday.
The BJP is contesting 42 seats and its allies — RLSP, LJP and HAM(S) — are contesting five and four seats each. In the last Assembly poll, the BJP had bagged 28 seats while its then alliance partner JD(U) picked up 23 seats. Three seats had gone to Independent candidates. The RJD could bag just one seat. However, this time the RJD put up its candidates in 26 seats leaving 21 and 8 seats each to alliance partners JD(U) and the Congress.
In a last-minute effort, the BJP’s star campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressed two poll meetings in Gopalgunj and Muzaffarpur on Friday. “A lot is at stake in this phase ...it will make or mar our poll prospects,” quipped a local BJP leader in Muzaffarpur.
The thinking among some BJP leaders is that in the fourth phase, the party will make up the losses it has suffered in the first three phases. “The party has put in all its political resources and might to pull through the fourth phase thereby taking at least psychological advantage in the last phase poll on November 5,” a BJP leader at a local booth in Darbhanga told The Hindu .
The last and fifth phase poll will be held for 57 seats.
