Next Target – Bengal : PM Modi
New Delhi: The NDA has retained power in Bihar with a landslide win, crafted by its caste math and an unexpected wave of support for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It left the Opposition decimated, with Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD getting less than half its 2020 seats.
The ruling NDA has swept Bihar with 202 seats in the 243-member state assembly. The Opposition Mahagathbandhan could scrape up just 35 seats. Maintaining that the massive win has taken Bihar by storm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Some parties formed appeasement formula of ‘MY’, but this victory has cemented new ‘MY’ combination of Mahila and Youth”. “The Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal… Bihar has paved the way for the BJP’s victory in Bengal. Will remove Jungle Raaj from Bengal as well,” he said. In Bihar, the BJP won 89 seats, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU 85, Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 19, Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha five and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha four. Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD could just pick up 25, the Congress six, the CPM one, the CPI(ML)(L) two and IIP one. Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, considered the X factor in this election, has completely collapsed. The dark horse turned out to be Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which won five seats, powered by Muslim votes from Seemanchal. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan, won from family turf Raghopur. But the contest that was expected to be a cakewalk turned out to be a day-long see-saw battle. He has been representing the constituency in the state assembly since 2015. In 2020, the RJD had won 75 seats and emerged as the single largest party. The score – falling short of the majority mark by only 12 — had given the opposition an extra heft and brought hopes of a victory this time . Instead it finds itself with a score that may not even allow it to get the position of the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. For the BJP, the trajectory remains on the course set in 2020, when beating the odds, it had won more seats than Nitish Kumar’s JDU and assuming a dominating role in the alliance for the first time. While both parties contested 101 seats this time and the JDU hugely improved on its 2020 score of 43, it is still trailing the BJP. The NDA’s steller performance is being considered as much a result of the huge participation by women voters as its rainbow caste math. The entry of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party was expected to cut into the non-NDA votes, but data shows it has polled fewer votes than NOTA (None Of The Above Option).
