Claiming a 1977-like wave in favour of NDA in Bihar, LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said except for Yadavs and Muslims, other social groupings had broken up in the state because of pro-Narendra Modi sentiment.
"Except for 70-80 per cent Yadavs and Muslims, other caste and social groupings have broken up in Bihar, particularly in rural areas due to strong sentiment in favour of Narendra Modi," Paswan said.
The LJP leader said that the ground reality in Bihar was that numerically influential castes like forward castes, banias, dalits, kushwahas and extremely backward castes were solidly behind Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
Paswan, who is in the fray from his home turf Hajipur, claimed that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) had "accepted defeat" and fielded "vote katwas" (vote splitters) in more than 75 per cent of the seats in the state.
Paswan's LJP, the new NDA ally of BJP, was contesting seven out of 40 seats in the state with BJP and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Dal.
Yadavs and Muslims were considered the traditional support base of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. The RJD had allied with the Congress this time.
Nitish Kumar had won 2009 Parliamentary elections through social engineering by bringing together forward castes, kurmi, kushwaha, mahadalits and EBC.
The LJP chief said even a section of Yadavs had disassociated themselves from Lalu Prasad knowing very well that he was not in the fray.
He also took potshots at the RJD supremo for not being invited to rallies by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Paswan said in a bid to better relate with voters, LJP had decided to issue constituency-wise manifesto in seven seats it was contesting in Bihar.
The LJP President, before leaving for Jamui (SC reserved) constituency from where his son Chirag Paswan was contesting, however, did not speculate on the number of seats the NDA would win in Bihar.
"This will be clear only after the first round of voting on April 10," he said.
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