"Why vote for Lalu Yadav, Rahul Gandhi? For corruption or family?: Giriraj Singh on Bihar exit polls predicting NDA win

New Delhi [India], November 12 (ANI): Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday expressed confidence in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning the Bihar assembly polls, while also taking a sarcastic jibe at the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance, which he claimed is rife with internal rifts and corruption within leaders.
"Apart from Gujarat, Bihar is a state where even after 20 years, there is an atmosphere in favour of the current government. I think that the strike rate will be more than the one in 2010 because women were quite excited about the government, which will be seen in the coming days," Singh told ANI here.
In 2010, the Nitish Kumar-led alliance with the BJP secured a comfortable majority of 203 seats in the 243-seat assembly. While the JD(U) won 115 seats, the BJP won 91 seats. In the current alliance arrangement, both the JD(U) and BJP agreed to contest 101 seats each, while distributing the rest to the rest of their alliance partners. In 2015, the JD(U) allied with the Congress and RJD to win the mandate again.
When asked about the Opposition parties expressing confidence in their victory instead, the Union Minister questioned why anyone would even vote for Lalu Yadav after so many corruption allegations, or even Rahul Gandhi after "he has lost 30 elections."
"The opposition is cooking stuff up on their own, but I would like to ask people why give vote to Lalu Yadav or Rahul Gandhi? Is it because he is accused of corruption, covered in corruption, and is out on bail? Rahul Gandhi should drown, he has lost around 30 elections. If they win, they praise Rahul Gandhi, if they lose then they will blame the Election Commission and cry about it," he said.
While taking a jab at the 'parivarvaad' of the alliance, he added, "Whether you believe exit polls or not, but who will even give them (Mahagathbandhan) vote? I want to ask that. Is the vote for family? I would like to appeal to my Yadav brothers to condemn such things."
Following the conclusion of the second and last phase of the Bihar assembly elections, multiple exit polls released predicted that the ruling NDA is poised to form the government again in Bihar, while forecasting that the Mahagathbandhan will fall short of the majority mark in the 243-member State Assembly.
The exit polls also predicted that Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj, which made its debut in the Assembly polls, is unlikely to make any splash in terms of seats.
People's Pulse poll survey gave 133-159 seats to NDA, 75-101 seats to Mahagathbandhan and 0-5 seats to Jan Suraaj. Others, it said, are likely to get 2-8 seats.
While the first phase of polling was held on November 6, the second phase concluded on Tuesday. The state has seen record polling in the assembly polls. Counting of votes is set to take place on November 14. (ANI)