PATNA -- Bihar assembly poll result will not be a referendum on the performance of the Narendra Modi government but on Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar and 'jungle raj', BJP said today.
"There is no question of the verdict in Bihar assembly polls being a referendum on the Narendra Modi government's performance. If at all the Bihar polls are a referendum on anything, it is on Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar and jungle raj," BJP's poll in-charge in Bihar and Union minister Ananth Kumar told newsmen soon after the conclusion of the fifth and last phase of polling.
Apparently miffed with the exit poll surveys that varied widely from BJP's claims of securing a two-third majority, Kumar said he would wait for the November 8 results.
"The exit poll surveys may project a different story so we will wait till November 8 for the verdict that will be decisively in favour of NDA which will get two-third majority in Bihar," he said.
On pollsters describing the verdict for the battle for Bihar as "tight contest" and "photo finish", the leader shot back saying, "There is nothing called photo finish or tight contest ... It does not happen often ... It has not happened many times in past three decades as the electorate in a number of states have decisively voted for a party or alliance."
"The people of Bihar have given a decisive mandate and the results will become clear on only 8 November next," he added.
Indian voters queue to cast their ballots at a voting centre in the final stage of state assembly elections in the Bihar village of Thakurganj in Kishanganj district on November 5, 2015.
Kumar, who is the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers claimed that NDA was ahead of the grand alliance in all five phases of polls including in Seemanchal and Mithilanchal.
BJP-led NDA contested the closely fought assembly polls in Bihar in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself led the campaign from the front addressing as many as 31 election meetings spread over all five phases of the polls.
Kumar claimed that the youth, women and poor people of Bihar have voted "strongly" in favour of NDA.
The youth have voted for NDA for aspirational politics, women voters outnumbered male voters to exercise their franchise against return of jungle raj and the poor cast their votes keeping faith in the Prime Minister's inclusive development agendas, he said.
The people of Bihar, the BJP veteran said, have voted for a change of guard in which the state government will work in tandem with the Centre to speed up development in the state and utilize the prime minister's Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for the state's uplift.
On NDA's chief ministerial face in Bihar in case the alliance secures a positive verdict, he said BJP national president Amit Shah has said the person would be a Bihari and from the party. The BJP parliamentary board will take the final decision in the matter.
The Union Minister said that the NDA had run a positive campaign on development agenda all through the elections and charged the grand alliance with carrying out a misinformation campaign against NDA by resorting to diversionary issues.
He referred to the row over beef and reservation among others and added, "But the grand alliance failed miserably to take away focus from development."
Kumar thanked the people of Bihar, Election Commission and the security forces for conduct of free and fair assembly polls in the state.
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