Bihar: Grand Alliance loses Harlakhi

After winning the Bihar state Assembly polls by a thumping majority in 2015, the grand secular alliance on Tuesday faced a huge setback as the NDA managed to bag success in the bypoll for Harlakhi constituency.

The Harlakhi byelection was necessitated after Basant Kumar of the RLSP (Rashtriya Lok Samata Party) had died a day before of taking oath; the RLSP later gave the ticket to his son, Sudhanshu Shekhar, who, according to Congress party leaders, “won due to a sympathy wave”. With the result in favour of the NDA, their strength goes up to 58 in the 243-member state Assembly.

The NDA, which took out a statewide protest march on Tuesday against the Nitish Kumar-led grand secular alliance government, attributed the Harlakhi bypoll success to “growing public anger against the government’s failure in curbing lawlessness in Bihar”.

Lok Janshakti Party senior leader and MP Chirag Paswan, while participating in the anti-grand secular alliance government campaign, said, “There is no governance in the state. With a series of murders taking place the state has returned to jungle raj days and people are forced to live in fear.” According to BJP state president Mangal Pandey, the protests will continue in Bihar “as criminals are openly flashing AK-47s and killing mercilessly”.

The LJP also demanded the imposition of President’s Rule in the state and sought a CBI probe into the killing of political leaders. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said the Harlakhi bypoll success was “the failure of jungle raj”.