IANS/Patna
The Bharatiya Janata Party will ban cow slaughter in Bihar if it wins assembly elections to be held later this month, senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said yesterday.
“We will ban cow slaughter if the BJP-led NDA forms the government,” Modi wrote in his Twitter handle, referring to the National Democratic Alliance.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had saved the lives of thousands of cows by stopping their smuggling.
“The BJP want to improve the life of ‘gau-palak’ by protecting cows,” the former deputy chief minister of Bihar said.
Also yesterday, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) said it would contest in six seats in Bihar.
The AIMIM last month decided to contest elections in Bihar’s Seemanchal region which accounts for 24 constituencies. But the party decided to field only six candidates.
The party’s Bihar unit president Akhtarul Imaan will contest from Kocha Daman.
The other constituencies and candidates are: Kishangunj/Taseeruddin, Rani Gunj/Amit Paswan, Baisi/Gulam Sarwar, Amour/Nawazish Alam and Balrampur/Mohamed Adil.
Akhtarul Imaan is a former member of Bihar assembly. He was earlier with the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said his party would be making a beginning in Bihar by contesting six seats and would try to build on this.
The Hyderabad MP said his party was aware of its limitations and hence decided to contest a limited number of seats.
He said his party was fighting for the development and rights of Seemanchal region.
“Why this hue and cry over MIM contesting six seats in the 243-member assembly?” he asked, denying the allegations that his party was dividing secular votes.
Owaisi wondered why no one was questioning the move by the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties to contest the elections. He said these parties had put up candidates in 150-200 seats.
Meanwhile, the upper castes, the BJP’s traditional support base, have expressed their anger after the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), a member of the BJP-led alliance, promised job reservations in the private sector if voted to power.
The poll promise may put HAM in trouble as the party too is eyeing overwhelming support from the upper castes, besides some backward castes and Dalits.
At a time when the BJP is trying hard to convince Dalits, OBCs, EBCs that it has nothing to do with Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh’s chief Mohan Bhagwat’s demand to review the reservation policy, its ally HAM by promising job reservation in the private sector has landed the party in a soup.
“The BJP should explain its stand on job reservation in the private sector promised by the HAM. How can we support a party like HAM, which is keen to snatch our private sector jobs,” said Rahul Kumar Singh, in his mid 20s, who belongs to the powerful upper caste - Rajput.
Singh is a postgraduate student in Patna and is preparing for examinations for government jobs.
Ajit Sharma, in his early 20s, who belongs to the landed upper caste, said the BJP should not expect them to support the HAM.
“Why should we vote for HAM that has promised job reservation in the private sector? There is little scope for us as far as government jobs matter, now even private jobs will be reserved,” Sharma, who is pursuing a computer course, said.
The HAM manifesto, released by party chief and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, on Saturday promised that the party would strive for job reservation in the private sector if the BJP-led alliance comes to power.
Manjhi is a strong supporter of job reservation in the private sector.
Manjhi, who has emerged as an icon among sections of Dalits, is playing the job reservation in the private sector card to counter Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s attempt to turn the Bihar polls into a fight between forwards and backwards.
The HAM is contesting 20 of the 243 assembly seats, the BJP is contesting 160 seats, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) 40 and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) 23.
However, BJP leaders as well as its two allies - LJP of federal minister Ram Vilas Paswan and RLSP of minister Upender Kushwaha - are tightlipped about job reservations in the private sector as promised by the HAM.
Going by the NDA list of candidates for the Bihar polls, it is clear that the party is essentially relying on the upper castes in the election.
