Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, stung by the crushing defeat of his party Janata Dal (United) in the recent Lok Sabha elections, has resigned. The Narendra Modi wave had swept aside the Bihar chief minister, leaving him with just two seats in the Lok Sabha.
In June 2013, the JD(U) severed ties with the BJP miffed with the projection of Narendra Modi as the NDA's prime ministerial candidate. Post that, Kumar's eight-and-a half-year old government became a minority one, having only 116 MLAs in a House of 243 (122 needed to have a simple majority). The JD(U) government has been surviving for so long on the outside support of Congress and independent legislators.
Friday’s results showed the NDA powered to 31 seats - an increase of 19 seats. With an overwhelming 44 per cent vote share for BJP, up 30 per cent from 2009, the party alone won 22 of the 30 seats it fought.
With 29.4 per cent, BJP scored approx double the vote share of JD(U)and managed to garner 34318576 votes in its favour. RJD on the other hand got vote share of 20.1 per cent and that made it to 7224893 votes and JD(U) just got 15.8 per cent vote share and managed 5664 votes.
BJP took a sweet revenge against JD(U) of Nitish Kumar, which had broken away from the alliance with the saffron party, to win 19 seats on its own. Its new allies LJP of Ramvilas Paswan and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party of Upendra Kushwaha, a friend-turned foe of Nitish Kumar, rode piggyback on BJP.
Besides winning his own Hajipur and son Chirag Paswan's Jamui reserved seats, LJP won four out of the seven seats it contested in alliance with BJP. RLSP won all the three seats it contested.
Ruling JD(U), which had won the lion's share of 20 out of a total of 40 seats in the state in 2009, managed to win only two seats of Purnea and Nalanda. Its President Sharad Yadav was humbled at Madhepura in the hands of RJD Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.
RJD, though won four seats and helped its ally Congress two seats, was also routed by a strong Modi wave. RJD President Lalu Prasad could not even ensure victory of wife Rabri Devi at Saran and daughter Misa Bharti at Patliputra seat. Prasad's long-time aide Ramkripal Yadav, who rebelled over denial of ticket, humbled Misa Bharti at Patliputra seat by over 40,000 votes. His close associate and former union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh also suffered defeat at Vaishali seat at the hands of LJP's Rama Singh.
The BJP boom helped actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha tide over anti-incumbency and peoples ire which was reflected in a section of people showing him black flags during campaign. Sinha retained his Patna Sahib seat by an impressive 2,65,805 votes defeating his nearest Congress rival and Bhojpuri actor Kunal Singh. But BJP's Muslim poster boy Shahnawaz Hussain was not lucky.
He lost to his RJD rival Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal by a slender margin on 9485 votes at Bhagalpur seat. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a terse statement said he respected the people's verdict. Buoyant BJP senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi asked Kumar to resign on moral grounds taking a cue from his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi.
Nitish Kumar even failed to perform better in the bypoll in five assembly seats which took place along with Lok Sabha poll. JD (U) won only Kochadhaman assembly seat. RJD won three seats of Baisi, Sahebpur Kamal and Chiria. BJP won Maharajganj Assembly seat.
Despite the scorching heat people of Bihar braved to go out and vote for their sate and nation. Voting was peaceful in Bihar except for a few incidents of clashes between rival groups and blasts.
How Bihar voted in 2009
In Bihar, the poll scenario was much different from the existing one, with JD(U) and Bihar contesting together.
The then NDA had won 32 of 40 seats together. The BJP won 12 seats and lost three with 16.2 per cent of total votes cast. The JD(U) fared well winning 20 of 25 seats bagging almost one-fourth of the votes cast.
The RLD/LJP combine garnered 26 per cent of the total votes but that could only translate into four seats for the party. LJP could not open its account in 2009, and this year it has joined the NDA. The Congress was a big loser in the 2009 show with only four seats in its fold. It could secure only 2 of 37 seats in which the party contested.
(With agency inputs)
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