Nearly three months after its stupendous victory, the Grand Secular Alliance in Bihar today suffered a setback losing Harlakhi Assembly bypoll to BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) candidate by 18,650 votes.
Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha led RLSP candidate Sudhansu Sekhar, riding on a sympathy wave, defeated his Congress rival Mohammad Shabir by a margin of 18,650 votes.
Sudhansu Sekhar's RPT Sudhansu Sekhar's father Basant Kushwaha had died a day before oath taking in November last year.
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Returning Officer Bishnudeo Mandal said while RLSP nominee polled 62,434 votes, the Congress candidate bagged 43,784 votes and CPI Ram Naresh Pandey 19,835.
The victory margin of the RLSP candidate is almost five times more than his father, who had defeated the same Congress candidate Mohammad Shabir in October-November poll by about 3,600 votes.
With today's victory, the tally of RLSP goes up to two in the 16th Bihar Assembly while that of NDA to 58 in the 243-member House. BJP has 53 MLAs, LJP 2, RLSP 2 and Hindustani Awam Morcha of Jitan Ram Manjhi 1.
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Following the NDA candidate's victory at Harlakhi bypoll, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the verdict has proved beyond doubt that people have got disenchanted with the Nitish Kumar-government within three months due to "deteriorating" law and order situation.
The big margin with which Sudhanshu Shekhar has won also proves the downtrodden sections of the society have returned to the NDA fold, Modi told reporters.
During the Assembly polls, the Grand Alliance had planted doubts among the people about continuation of the reservation system, he said.
"But that 'caste arithmetic' of the ruling coalition has also been broken 'for good'," he said.
Modi also criticised the CM for "intimidating" the Opposition and the media by threatening to file a case against them claiming he had never described Ishrat Jahan, the Bihar-born woman who was killed in a police encounter in Gujarat in 2004, as 'Bihar ki Beti'.
Though Kumar had himself not said this, JD(U) spokespersons under his command had indeed said so, he said.
"No JD(U) spokesperson can muster the guts to describe Ishrat Jahan as 'Bihar ki Beti' without instruction from the Chief Minister," he said.
On Kumar's promise that RJD MLA Rajballabh Yadav, facing rape charge, will be brought to justice through speedy trial, Modi asked the Chief Minister to ensure speedy trial in all other high-profile cases involving RJD and JD(U) legislators in the past three months.
