Caste out of Bihar equation as NDA wins state; Tejashwi's rise stalled

Decimating the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD’s) Grand Alliance, which was banking on the caste factor to defeat the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Modi tsunami is set to make a clean sweep in Bihar.

The NDA is set to bag a whopping 39 out of the 40 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in the state. This is so far the best performance by any political formation in Bihar in decades. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been leading in all the 17 seats it contested in the state, while Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U) or JD(U) had been ahead in 16 constituencies at the time of filing of this report.

The JD(U) was locked in a close contest in the Jehanabad seat, where it maintained a thin margin of just a thousand plus votes. Meanwhile, the JD(U)’s Syed Mahmmood Ashraf had been behind Congress’s Mohammad Jawed in Kishanganj. On the other hand, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the third NDA constituent in Bihar, maintained a clear lead in all the six seats it contested this time.

Major leaders of the NDA in the state, including all the Union ministers and prominent faces, are well ahead in their respective constituencies. Union minister Giriraj Singh won in Begusarai with a margin of 419,000 votes, while former Jawaharlal University students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar bagged only 267,000 votes. 

“The margin of my victory will be larger than the vote Kanhiya would get,” the Union minister and BJP nominee from Begusarai had told Business Standard a few days ago.  

On the other hand, senior Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad defeated his friend-turned-political-foe Shatrughan Sinha by almost 134,000 votes. Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav had been ahead of RJD superemo Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti in Patliputra. Union minister Raj Kumar Singh is ahead in Arrah.

Meanwhile, the once kingmaker of national politics, Lalu Prasad and his Muslim-Yadav line has completely gone off track. 

The Congress is leading in only one seat, at the time of filing of this report. Even jailed RJD chief’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged father-in-law Chandrika Roy was thrown away in this renewed Modi wave.

The results are expected to fuel further in-fighting in the RJD’s first family as Tej had raised questions on the leadership ability of his younger brother and Lalu’s heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav. 

Tej has staked claim to the RJD’s leadership and also fielded his aides in as many as five constituencies against RJD candidates in Bihar. The state is set to go to assembly polls later next year.

Not just Lalu, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and ex-Union minister Upendra Kushwaha are also facing defeat in this election. Neither Manjhi nor Kushwaha could get voters’ support as nationalism hogged the limelight, setting aside caste equations. 

Kushwaha lost in both Karakat and Ujaiyarpur constituencies, while Manjhi lost Gaya to JD(U)’s Vijay Manjhi. The election put a huge question mark on their political future as both of them once again failed the electoral test after the 2015 Bihar assembly election.