IANS/Patna

Noted lawyer and former federal minister Ram Jethmalani yesterday urged the people of Bihar to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Bihar assembly elections.
The elections will be held in five phases starting on October 12.
Jethmalani, a former BJP MP known for his vocal stand on various issues, urged the people to vote for Nitish Kumar, the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance of the Janata Dal-United, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.
“I want to appeal to people to vote for Nitish Kumar to defeat the BJP,” he told reporters here. “(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi should suffer a defeat in Bihar because he has cheated the people.”
He said Modi must be punished for his “anti-people policies.”
“The BJP should be taught a lesson for having defrauded the people and the armed forces. Democracy without education is hypocrisy without limitation,” he said.
Meanwhile, police said they were searching for Samajwadi Party’s Bihar president Ramchandra Singh Yadav, accused of taking Rs1mn bribe for a ticket to contest the election, and said he would be arrested soon.
Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Surender Yadav, who is accused of demanding money from a contractor and threatened him if he did not pay up, would also be arrested, the police said.
Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Vikas Vaibhav said the two have been charged in two separate criminal cases.
Superintendent of Police Chandan Kushwaha said police teams have raided a few places in search of them.
According to the police, Ramchandra Singh Yadav was booked on Friday on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
A case was filed against him by Kumar Venkatesh at Shastri Nagar police station in Patna.
Ramchandra Singh Yadav has denied the allegations.
In the other case, a contractor has accused RJD legislator Surender Yadav of demanding money and threatening him if he failed to pay.
Surender Yadav, who is contesting the polls as an RJD candidate from Belaganj in Gaya district, has also denied the allegation.
As Bihar gets ready to elect a new assembly, leading parties in Punjab are wooing the Bihari migrant population in the state.
The BJP, which has high stakes in the Bihar polls, has initiated its “Chalo Bihar Abhiyan” in Punjab. It is urging people from Bihar living in Punjab to vote in their state.
Other parties like the Congress and the JD-U too are trying to woo Bihari voters in Punjab.
Punjab, according to official estimates, is home to some 2mn migrants from Bihar. They are engaged in various jobs and occupations in Punjab.
Of this, over 1.3mn are living in and around the industrial hub of Ludhiana.
The focus of the BJP and other parties is on Ludhiana. No leader from the BJP’s Punjab unit has been told to campaign in Bihar so that they can focus on the migrant population in Punjab.
“The BJP has changed the overall image of the country in its over one year rule in India. The entire world now views our country as the next superpower. It is time for the people of Bihar to put in power those (BJP) who have proved themselves,” BJP Punjab unit president Kamal Sharma said.
The BJP last week organised a meeting of its “Pravasi cell” in Ludhiana. It was also attended by Rajya Sabha MP  Prabhat Jha.
At the meeting, Jha said: “The Bihar polls are an occasion where the people of Bihar have a chance to change the fortunes of the under-developed state.”
“The failure of the political leadership (of Bihar) is the reason other states are scripting new chapters in development while Bihar is listed among the worst states (in development). The BJP is ready to change the scenario but for that each and every individual from Bihar working in Punjab votes for our party,” Jha said.