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  India   Massive Nitish-Lalu win in Bihar

Massive Nitish-Lalu win in Bihar

Published : Nov 9, 2015, 1:07 am IST
Updated : Nov 9, 2015, 1:07 am IST

RJD is biggest single party, Lalu may again call the shots

RJD  president Lalu Prasad Yadav hugs Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after the victory of their alliance in  Bihar elections.	 (Photo: AP
 RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav hugs Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after the victory of their alliance in Bihar elections. (Photo: AP

RJD is biggest single party, Lalu may again call the shots

It was a spectacular victory for the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Yadav-led Grand Alliance and a resounding defeat for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led BJP. After its defeat in Delhi earlier this year, the crushing defeat in the Bihar elections seem to have taken wind out of the BJP’s chariot and sent saffronites led by Amit Shah scurrying for cover and introspection. From here, on the journey for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is likely to be an arduous one.

The Bihar outcome, experts feel, was a verdict against the politics of hate and the politics of polarisation, that the BJP top brass unabashedly unleashed during campaigning.

Discarding its development plank, party leaders went into beef politics, talked of how Pakistan would celebrate a BJP defeat and how Nitish Kumar as CM was favouring Muslims over backward Hindus.

The rejection of the politics of polarisation was complete with the BJP-led NDA bagging only 58 seats and the Nitish-Lalu-Congress-led Grand Alliance sweeping the polls, winning 178 of 243 Assembly seats. The Congress, that was virtually wiped out of Bihar, surprised even its harshest critics by bagging 27 seats. The Grand Alliance registered an overall 41.9 per cent, with the RJD getting 18.4 per cent, JD(U) 16.8 per cent and Congress 6.7 per cent.

Marginalising the state BJP leadership, the Modi-Shah combine had taken it upon themselves to win Bihar for the party. Mr Modi became the first Prime Minister in recent years to have addressed nearly 30 rallies in any Assembly poll. This gamble boomeranged badly. While Mr Shah’s leadership has come under a cloud, Mr Modi’s reported charisma and his ability to lead the party to electoral triumphs is now open to question.

It was a pathetic show by the BJP as the party on its own got just 53 seats out of the 157 it had contested, while its allies also put up a poor show. The LJP, led by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, and the RLSP of Upendra Kushwaha got two seats each. Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi won only one of the two seats he contested and his outfit, HAM, lost in all the other 19 seats it fought.

Of the seven Independents and others elected, three are from the Left parties.The knives are clearly out in the BJP. Iconic filmstar MP Shatrughan Sinha was the first to draw blood. “The issue of Bihari versus Bahri (outsider) has been settled once and for all,” Mr Sinha said, firing directly at the Modi-Shah duo. BJP general secretary and Swadeshi Jagran Manch leader Murlidhar Rao claimed both these leaders had “betrayed the BJP” and were the reason for the party’s defeat. BJP MP from Bihar R.K. Singh questioned the distribution of tickets by the party.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi