PATNA: The “grand alliance” between former Bihar rivals RJD and the ruling JD(U) along with Congress put a resurgent BJP on the mat in bypolls for 10 Assembly seats in the state by winning six seats and boosting the morale of the two regional parties after their rout in the Lok Sabha polls. Both RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar exulted in their new success in togetherness, terming the bypoll results, announced on Monday, as the “clear mood of Bihar’s people” and a rejection of BJP’s “divisive policies” just three months after the saffron party and its regional allies swept the LS polls in Bihar.
BJP leaders, however, dismissed the bypoll results as those purely influenced by local issues and bearing no statewide public support for JD(U) and RJD. In the bypolls, held on August 21, RJD won three seats (Chapra, Mohiuddinnagar and Rajnagar), JD(U) won two (Jale and Parbatta) and Congress won the crucial Bhagalpur seat from BJP after 23 years.
BJP, which contested in nine seats, won the rest four seats Hajipur, Narkatiaganj, Mohania and Banka – while its ally LJP lost the lone seat it contested for Parbatta. Celebrations at JD(U) and RJD headquarters in Patna were decidedly more vigorous than at BJP office. “It is now clear that efforts to divide the society and impose certain theories with textbook-like certitude were rejected by Bihar’s people. Without there being any caste-based affinities or any caste-based vote banks, the people decided on the basis of their conscience, for which I salute them,” said Nitish Kumar, who had resigned as Bihar’s chief minister two days after JD(U)’s crushing defeat in the LS polls.
Lalu Prasad Yadav tweeted from a Mumbai hospital, where he was admitted for chest pain, that the voters have rectified the mistakes they made in LS polls. Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi conceded that the bypoll results were “less than expected” for the saffron party and that it had won in some seats where it had fared badly in LS polls. “JD(U) made smaller gains than RJD, and for this Nitish Kumar surrendered himself and his party to Lal Prasad Yadav. BJP will never allow RJD and JD(U) to regain power in 2015 Assembly polls,” he said.
