Chiefs of Grand Alliance partners in Bihar defeated

There was such a Modi wave in Bihar this time that the chiefs of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and VIP - the three allies of the RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar - have been defeated in Lok Sabha polls.

RLSP chief and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, who contested from two seats Ujiyarpur and Karakat - has been defeated in both. In the Ujiyarpur seat, he was defeated by BJP state president Nityanand Rai and in Karakat he was beaten by the Janata Dal United (JD-U) candidate Mahabali Singh.

Kushwaha had won Karakat seat in 2014 when he was with the BJP-led NDA.

HAM chief and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has been defeated from Gaya by the JD-U candidate Vijay Manjhi. Gaya is the home district of Manjhi.

Vikash Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Shahni, who is popularly known as son of Mallah, was defeated from the Khagaria constituency by the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) sitting MP Mahboob Ali Qaiser.

As per the seat sharing formula of the Grand Alliance, RLSP contested from 5 seats and HAM and VIP contested from 3 seats each. But three parties failed to win a single seat.

Besides RJD's Muslim-Yadav combination, the Grand Alliance was banking on RLSP getting the votes of the Kushwaha community. Dalit votes for HAM and the Mallah community votes for VIP. These calculations, however, do not appear to have worked.

In Bihar, the NDA - comprising of the BJP, JD-U and LJP - appear to have got the caste equations right for this general election.

--IANS

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