Patna: The NDA was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in close to 200 out of 243 seats Friday with the BJP emerging as single largest party with nearly 95 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
The Mahagathbandhan, which includes the RJD, the Congress and three Left parties, seemed to be poised for a crushing defeat, notwithstanding surveys and opinion polls showing its Chief Ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav as the most preferred leader for the top post. The Opposition alliance was struggling to cross the 35-seat mark.
BJP’s lead in more than 95 assembly seats out of 101 it contested, a performance that would further cement its position as the numero uno political force in the country, will also offset whatever setback that might have been caused by last year’s Lok Sabha polls when the party had to rely on allies to remain in power in the Centre.
The NDA’s tally in Bihar comes in the backdrop of the BJP’s back-to-back stupendous performances in Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Firm backing to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by Modi and his ministers also appeared to have paid rich dividends for the JD(U), which seems poised to drastically improve its tally since 2020, when it had won only 43 seats, but was now leading in more than 84 with nearly 19 per cent vote share.
The LJP(RV), headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, the self-declared “Hanuman” of the Prime Minister, which was left with only 28 candidates in the fray, with nomination papers of one of its nominees getting rejected during scrutiny, was also leading in more than 19 constituencies.
A simple majority to form the government in Bihar is 122.
The victory in Bihar polls, which were held in two phases amid alleged irregularities in revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission, is also significant as many see it as a prelude to assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, scheduled to be held in the next six months.
“NDA heading towards a landslide victory in Bihar,” BJP MP and chief spokesperson Anil Baluni said on X in Hindi.
Celebrations erupted at the offices of BJP and JD(U), situated across the street from each other, with workers playing drums, bursting firecrackers and chanting slogans in praise of their respective leaders.
In front of the residence of the Chief Minister, the JD(U)’s 75-year-old national president, party workers posed for photographs holding aloft posters with the caption “Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai”.
State BJP president Dilip Jaiswal remarked, good humouredly, “of course, the stature of Nitish Kumar is higher than that of a tiger. And we are confident that these trends will be converted into results”.
Although results were yet to be declared for any of the seats, the trends showed prominent BJP leaders like Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary (Tarapur) and Vijay Kumar Sinha (Lakhisarai) and ministers in Nitish Kumar cabinet –Nitin Nabin (Bankipur) and Nitish Mishra (Jhanjharpur), having established unassailable leads.
The party has polled close to 21 per cent of the votes counted in 101 seats it contested.
The RJD, which has been proudly flaunting its status as the “single largest party despite being in opposition”, was heading for a humiliating show, with its candidates leading in 25 seats as per latest EC figures.
Tejashwi Yadav, who according to Prime Minister Modi was declared as a chief ministerial candidate after the RJD put a “katta” on the head of its alliance partners, was precariously placed in Raghopur, the RJD stronghold, and was trailing by more than 7500 votes. BJP’s Satish Kumar was leading.
Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwah’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha, both junior partners in the NDA, were leading in five and four seats respectively. Both parties had contested six seats each.
The Congress, often seen as a “weak link” in the INDIA bloc, was leading in only one, out of 61 that it had contested, many of these being instances of “friendly fights” with alliance partners.
Another BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, saying the opposition party did not just lose its legacy but credibility also under his leadership.
“Rahul’s gift to the Congress on Nehruji’s birth anniversary: 95 losses again and again! Legacy Lost, credibility lost Too!” Bhatia wrote on X.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owais’s AIMIM, which has often been accused of being a “B-team” of the BJP, was ahead in six seats. The party had contested 32 seats.
Prashant Kishor’s much hyped Jan Suraaj Party has put up a dismal show, with none of its candidates leading in their respective seats.
With the BJP outperforming the JD(U) in a second consecutive election, there is a possibility of a demand from within the cadres for having their “own chief minister”.
Significantly, Bihar is among the few states in the country where the BJP has not been able to manage to form a government yet on its own.
The PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, however, have so far been ambivalent on the issue, insisting that the NDA was “led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar”, a strategy that may have been adopted in view of the fact that the BJP, which does not have a majority in Lok Sabha, and is dependent on allies like JD(U), and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP for survival in power.
