India, Nov. 5 -- As the high-decibel campaigning for the first phase of Bihar assembly polls came to an end, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who also held a rally in Vaishali district, spoke on a range of poll-related issues. Edited excerpts of his interview with Saubhadra Chatterji:

What are the major planks for the Grand Alliance in the Bihar polls?

I think the young people are worried about lack of employment, migration, price rise and implementation of (revised) minimum wages in Bihar. These are the big issues for us. The NDA government's system has also failed in Bihar. It has not done anything for the poor of the state.

For political purposes, the government talks about backward castes, SC, ST and EBC (Extreme Backward Cla...