A sort of psychological war has begun between the ruling JD-U and the main opposition RJD ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar scheduled for October/November.

While the JD-U has accused RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s family of indulging in corruption and misappropriation of properties, the RJD has launched constant attacks on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for shutting himself up in his official residence for the past 90 days since the lockdown was enforced to check Corona spread in March.

On Monday again, Patna woke up to yet another giant poster that read “Bihar ka mukhyamantri gayab kyon hai (Why the chief minister of Bihar has gone missing)?” The RJD even announced to beat up drums across the state if the chief minister didn’t wake up from deep slumber soon.

The poster said the chief minister has been missing for the past 90 days despite the Coronavirus spreading so fast and the health department conducting fewer tests. RJD legislator and Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav wondered as to how only 1.23 lakh Corona tests have been conducted in the past 100 days in a state with a total population of 12.60 crores! The poor health infrastructure condition can be underlined from the fact that the authorities are not conducting even 10,000 tests in a day, he said.

“While on the one hand, the state government has been blaming the migrant labourers who returned from various parts of the country after lockdown for the rise in the Covid-19 cases, just a little over one lakh samples have been tested while the number of returning migrants is over 30 lakhs. Were the migrants properly screened or did the authorities conduct random testing?” asked Tejashwi.

He also hit out at the chief minister at the way he has been busy preparing the strategy for the upcoming assembly elections instead of taking note of the Coronavirus spread. The chief minister held a series of virtual meetings with the party leaders and workers for a full one week past week, asking them as to how to connect with the masses through social media, make them aware of the government achievements and counter the opposition’s “propaganda”.

A couple of days back, the JD-U had even put up posters listing details of 73 benami properties occupied by Lalu Prasad and his family. These posters were put up on the day the RJD celebrated the 73rd birthday of party chief Lalu Prasad who is lodged in Ranchi jail.