Bihar elections 2020: UP CM Yogi Adityanath addresses a public rally in Balmiki Nagar, West Champaran

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav Monday said he will implement his poll promise of giving 10 lakh jobs even if that means withholding the salaries of the chief minister, ministers and MLAs.Referring to the constant criticism his RJD has received over its performance during its 15-year rule between 1990-2005, he said some people are "stuck on the stale pages of history, but we care for Bihar's future" and appealed to people to give him "one chance" to govern.

Bihar CM and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Monday addressed an election rally in Madhepura district’s Bihariganj assembly constituency from where former Union minister and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) chief Sharad Yadav’s daughter Subhashini Yadav is in the fray on Congress ticket, but he avoided speaking anything against his former party colleague and friend-turned-foe.​

Nitish on Monday addressed a series of five election rallies in Madhepura and Supaul district. His first rally was in Alamnagar assembly constituency. After Alamnagar, the Bihar CM reached Udakishunganj and addressed a rally at the local SBJS High School ground under Bihariganj constituency where his party nominee and sitting MLA Niranjan Kumar Mehta is seeking re-election.

Leading from the front is RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav who has managed to address 19 rallies a day in the polls, next is Kanahiya Kumar who is holdng rallies and puling crowds for his party CPI which is in the RJD-led alliance. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also addressed four rallies in both the phases.

But analysts say that the jobs promise by Tejashwi is resonating with the crowds and he has singlehandedly managed to lead the opposition in the absence of his father Lalu Prasad Yadav. In his campaign Tejashwi has removed his father and mother from posters and now the BJP is asking for the reason behind it.

As Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha sought a probe into former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's death, raising questions on his son Chirag, the Lok Janshakti Party president on Monday said everyone is playing politics over a dead person now and no one bothered to visit him when he was alive.

"Those who are saying such things about a son should be ashamed of themselves. I have told Manjhi ji about my father's serious condition over the phone, yet he never came to see him. Why didn't he show concern when he was hospitalised," Chirag asked.

Out of 1,195 candidates contesting in phase-3 of the Bihar assembly elections later this week, 31 per cent have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

About 282 or 24 per cent have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences attracting over five years of imprisonment, the report said.

Bhagalpur has been known for long as a BJP stronghold, which even RJD supremo Lalu Prasad could not decimate during the peak of his political powers in the 90s, but as the silk city of Bihar goes to polls on Tuesday it has come to symbolise the risk the ruling NDA faces from its former constituent Lok Janshakti Party in these assembly elections.

The PM targeted the lone Mahagathbandhan crowd puller: its CM face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. The latter, who was dismissed as a mere pretender just weeks ago, was acknowledged as the NDA’s challenger. In rally after rally, PM Modi referred to the RJD leader as ‘jungle raj ka yuvraj’. While the NDA’s chosen leader in Bihar – CM Nitish Kumar – seemed slipping on his ‘15 years vs 15 years’ campaign, the PM recalled the 15 years of the Lalu-Rabri raj as the jungle raj which, he reiterated, must not be allowed a rerun.Coincidentally, the PM concluded the day’s campaign at Bahuarwa farm fields of the Harinagar sugar mill under Chauterwa police station in West Champaran’s Bagaha police district which was one of the many epicentres of the ‘kidnap for ransom’ industry that had plagued West Champaran then.

Paswan claimed that if the current chief minister wins even by mistake, then his first (Nitish Kumar's) choice will be to form the government of the grand alliance. Responding to police action in Munger, Paswan said that the Nitish Kumar government has become "Mahishasur".