Bihar assembly elections were the much-anticipated buzz in the last few weeks with Janta Dal United (JDU) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) contesting for the majority seats in NDA and Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Indian National Congress (INC) in Mahagathbandhan. The voting being held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and November 7, was one of the first after the onset of the deadly pandemic.
In a neck-and-neck finish, the saffron party secured an impressive victory with BJP emerging dominant with 74 seats and JDU with 43 seats. Prime Minister Modi, pleased with yet another victory, in his speech on Wednesday said the party now had its footprint across the country and the results had made it clear that people would now support only those who work honestly for development. The election was contested under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, and although BJP emerged with most votes, BJP has confirmed that they will not be going back on their commitment of keeping Nitish Kumar as the CM.
BJP has never held power in Bihar on its own without JDU, but the election results give BJP some control due to the massive seat difference between the two parties and the embarrassing drop of seats secured by JDU compared to the 2015 result. Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), who is an NDA partner, is the main culprit to have caused considerable loss to JDU, by putting up most of their candidates against JDU. Paswan has always been vocal about his desire to overthrow JDU so his own party could form a coalition with BJP. But his move has caused NDA to lose many seats and has caused only chaos. There have been rumors that this move by LJP was a masterstroke by Amit Shah to secure most votes for BJP. BJP has however strongly denied these speculations and has slammed LJP for the confusion.
In a strange turn of events, shortly after the result, RJD made a serious allegation of poll fraud in a tweet soon after, stating that its winning candidates have not been issued winning certificates yet. The Election Commission refuted the claims and said that it has never worked under anybody's pressure.
Many exit polls had previously predicted that Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD led alliance will knock over Nitish Kumar’s NDA, while some had even predicted a hung assembly. Although RJD with 75 seats is the majority, INC being the weak link, contributed to their loss. The Congress had yet another election, that one would call a flop show, which will further the recent dissent within the party. In addition, Asauddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 5 seats in Seemanchal which made a surprising dent in Bihar’s political landscape.
Despite Nitish Kumar’s failing government in the last two years, and the exit polls predicting a clean RJD win, NDA pulled through in this nail-biting election securing 125 seats in the 243-member assembly, continuing to paint the country orange.
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