Reeling under a high number of COVID-19 cases, over 100 million people in the eastern Indian state of Bihar may find solace if they vote to power the country's governing Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections. Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has a presence in the state government as a coalition partner of Janata Dal United, led by Nitish Kumar.
The saffron party manifesto was presented by federal Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said a COVID vaccine will be mass-produced as soon as it is available and “every person in Bihar will get free vaccination”.
The BJP also promised 1.9 million government jobs to counter opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav's promise of one million government jobs.
The BJP has become the first party to include the much-anticipated COVID vaccine in its manifesto.
Sitharaman has requested support from voters for their chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), who also is the current chief of Bihar.
The political parties in the fray in the elections are the governing BJP and its ally JD (U) on the one hand, along with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), and the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on the other.
The BJP also included free tablets for all students in class 9, promised to make Bihar an IT hub to generate jobs, and to provide housing for 3,000,000 people among other promises in its manifesto.
On Wednesday, the Election Commission of India instructed the state administration to “invoke appropriate and relevant penal provisions” under the Disaster Management Act, and the Indian Penal Code against candidates found violating poll watchdog's orders. The warning comes in the wake of election rallies by youth leader Tejashwi Yadav, which are attracting massive crowds.
Without limiting the number of people, the election watchdog mandates that physical gatherings should be held "ensuring social distancing of at least two metres between the participants" and that everyone wears masks.
Bihar's COVID-19 tally rose to 208,237 on Wednesday, as 1,277 more people tested positive for the infection, a state health bulletin said.