PATNA: A ‘war’ has broken out between the ruling Janata Dal-United and the opposition RJD in Bihar on the back of posters which hit the streets on Tuesday, alleging that CM Nitish Kumar had ‘gone missing.’
Widely believed to have been put up by Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to allege his ‘absence from governance’ and the reason for the spiralling crime rate, the posters called upon Bihar to ‘think of change.’
The JD(U) hit back Wednesday, harking back to the 15-year misrule under the Lalu-Rabri Devi regimes. The issue is ‘Bhay’ (fear) versus ‘Bharosa’ (trust), the JD(U) posters, which appeared on Wednesday, suggested.
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The JD(U) has played up ’15 saal banam 15 saal’, arguing that 15-years under JD(U) has been of progress as against the preceding 15 years of chaos and loot.
The RJD posters had also taken on Kumar for his ‘silence’ on Citizenship Amendment Act. The JD(U) retaliatory posters featured vultures, suggesting misrule by RJD, with the JD(U) being represented by a dove, suggesting peace.
The poster wars have been a recurrent feature since September when JD(U) presented posers to people asking ‘Kyoon kare vichar, thike to hai Nitish Kumar’ (Why have second thoughts when Nitish is around and doing well’).
Countering it, RJD put up its posters saying, “Kyoon na kare vichar, Bihar jo hai bimar”(Why shouldn’t we when Bihar has turned sick?), while pointing to the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
The posters were out again in the wake of flooding of Patna during monsoons and the breakout of encephalitis soon after.
Multiple FIRs lodged
The Patna Municipal Corporation lodged FIRs against unknown persons for putting up posters mocking CM Nitish Kumar under sections for defacement of its space.