CPI-ML National Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. File | Photo credit: ANI
CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Sunday (Nov 9, 2025) said the ruling NDA alliance’s number of seats “will fall below 100” in the 243-member assembly, basing it on a strong opposition reflected in the high turnout during the first phase of Bihar elections.
The Left leader expressed shock over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of words like katta (country-made firearm) during the election campaign, calling it “the language of the underworld”.
“The high turnout in the first phase underlines the significant anti-incumbency among voters. This, in my view, ensures that the NDA will be reduced below 100 seats and the INDIA bloc will win 140-150 seats in the Bihar polls,” Mr Bhattacharya told reporters.
Bihar recorded an all-time high voter turnout of over 65% during polling in 121 assembly seats in the first phase on November 6.
“I am shocked to hear PM using ‘underworld’ language including words like katta. Uttar Pradesh CM is using bulldozer in election rallies to spread fear,” the Left leader said.
Voter fraud
Mr. Bhattacharya supported Congress leaders’ claims of chori voting, saying the people of Bihar were “aware of this” and “actively opposed these attempts in the first phase of the assembly elections.”
“There are three types of chori voting (vote theft), deletion of names from electoral rolls, preventing people from casting their votes and fake voting,” he said.
Mr. Bhattacharya slammed NDA leaders for dubbing Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of “one government job per household” as impossible.
“Providing one government job to every household may take some time, but it is not appropriate to throw away the promise as impossible. Those who do not want to provide jobs will keep making excuses,” the CPI(ML) Liberation leader said.
Hand hand
He praised Mr. Yadav for making the unemployment issue a strong issue in the polls. “NDA was forced to promise one million jobs.” He also justified Mr. Yadav’s promise to increase the quota limit to 65% by saying that “reservation is the right of the people of Bihar and must be ensured”.
On allegations by Congress leaders that the ruling NDA in Bihar was trying to destroy “corruption files”, Mr Bhattacharya said: “These are serious allegations and need to be investigated. Even former Union Minister RK Singh has leveled corruption allegations against the Nith government.” The CPI (ML) leader alleged that there was a feeling of “resentment” among many women voters who did not receive the benefits of the ‘Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana’.
“Even those who have received money as part of a government scheme know this is a poll trick,” he said.
Mr. Bhattacharya said women in Bihar were “creating a slogan 10 hazaar me dum nahi, karz maafi se kam nahi (₹10,000 is a small difference, we need nothing less than a waiver of our existing loans)”.
On the BJP’s claims, ghuspaithiya said, “Infiltration has become such a flexible issue that wherever there are elections, one can find infiltrators on duty,” he claimed, “BJP is trying to spread fear among people.”
“Even if infiltration occurs, it is the government’s duty to stop it,” he added.
Published – 9 Nov 2025 21:13 IST
