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The National Democratic Alliance on Friday won 13 out of 24 seats in the Bihar Legislative Council elections. The Janata Dal (United)-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won the other nine.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won 12 seats, which made it the largest party in the Legislative Council. The BJP’s coalition partner, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, won one seat. Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party did not win any.
The JD(U) managed to win only five constituencies. Earlier, the party held 17 of these 24 seats but had to part with seven due to pressure from the RJD and the Congress. The RJD emerged as the biggest loser, by winning two of the 10 seats it contested. The Congress also won a couple of seats.
Ritlal Yadav won the Patna constituency. Yadav is in Beur Jail here on charges of extortion, murder and kidnapping. Kumar Suman alias Ranjit Don, who became notorious for his role in the leak of CAT question papers in 2003, lost from Nalanda.
Merely months ahead of the assembly elections, this poll boosted the BJP’s morale. “Parishad ki jeet hamari hai, ab Vidhan Sabha ki bari hai (We won the council elections, now we will win the assembly polls too). We have won the semi-final of the assembly elections, now we will also win the final,” said BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
“Nitish Kumar made this election a prestige issue. The JD(U)-RJD alliance used every tactic to win this election,” Modi said. “We have won in Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria, which together constitute Seemanchal in Bihar. The margin of victory reflects that we got minority votes as well,”.
This election is different in that voters were members of urban and rural local bodies. Polling for the 24 seats from local bodies took place on Tuesday. Almost 60 per cent of the voters belonged to Dalit and other backward castes and 50 per cent were women. A total of 1.38 lakh voters were eligible to vote, of which 96 per cent did.
Foes-turned-friends Kumar and Prasad cemented their alliance ahead of the assembly elections, due in October-November. To consolidate the anti-BJP vote, Prasad accepted Kumar as the chief minister candidate. However, Friday’s result suggests the BJP is strong in the state.
