In Bihar, fuelled by Modi factor, Nitish’s EBC, Mahadalit base, NDA trumps INDIA

The NDA’s key ally JD (U), which had won 16 seats in 2019, bagged 12 seats this time. The JD(U)’s victory was even more impressive given that party president and chief minister Nitish Kumar was said to be ailing and losing his touch.

The NDA’s victory has been attributed to the Narendra Modi factor besides the point that Nitish’s constituency of Extreme Backward Classes (EBCs) and Mahadalits largely remained intact.

With both the JD(U) and the BJP winning 12 seats each, the former again emerged as a significant player in state and national politics.

Another NDA ally, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Chirag Paswan, won all five seats it contested. The party had also won all six seats it contested in the 2019 polls. LJP (RV) chief Chirag Paswan won with a huge margin from the Hajipur constituency, which had been represented in the past by his father and ex-Union minister late Ram Vilas Paswan.

Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) candidate and ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, also an NDA ally, won from the Gaya seat, defeating the RJD’s Kumar Sarvjeet.

In a setback for the NDA, Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief and ex-Union minister Upendra Kushwaha lost from Karakat to the CPI (ML)L’s Raja Ram Singh with Bhojpuri singer-actor and BJP rebel Pawan Singh playing the spoilsport for the ruling alliance. Kushwaha would be now forced to revisit his strategy to stay afloat in state politics.

In the INDIA camp, the RJD could manage to win only four seats out of 23 it contested. The party, whose campaign was spearheaded by Tejashwi Yadav, son of party chief Lalu Prasad, would however take heart from registering its presence in the Lok Sabha after a gap of five years. It had drawn a blank in 2019.

Lalu had mixed emotions over the poll results, more so with his eldest daughter Misa Bharti winning from Pataliputra and younger daughter Rohini Acharya losing from the Saran seat with a narrow margin at the hands of the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Misa’s victory assumes significance as the party has now won the Pataliputra seat for the first time since it came into existence following delimitation in 2008. While Lalu had lost from the seat to the JD (U)’s Ranjan Prasad Yadav in 2009, Misa had lost it to the BJP’s Ram Kripal Yadav in 2014 and 2019, whom she defeated this time.

One major reason for Misa’s victory was her outreach beyond the RJD’s traditional Muslim-Yadav vote base. While Lalu had been busy doing micro management for Rohini at Saran, Misa raised anti-incumbency pitch against Ramkripal even as she raked up local as well as national issues.

The RJD broke through the BJP’s prestigious citadel of Buxar, known as “mini Kashi” because of its proximity to Varanasi. RJD candidate Sudhakar Singh, Rajput leader and son of Jagdanand Singh, state RJD chief and ex-Buxar MP, was able to split the NDA’s upper caste votes because of his pro-farmer image, defeating BJP candidate Mithilesh Tiwari.

The RJD and its allies, Congress and CPI (ML)L, dealt a blow to the NDA in the Shahabad-Magadh region by winning several seats. In an upset, BJP leader and Union minister R K Singh lost to the CPI (ML)L’s Sudama Prasad in the Arrah seat.

Two-time BJP MP Sushil Kumar Singh also lost his Aurangabad seat to the RJD’s Abhay Kushwaha. The Opposition alliance’s move to allot tickets to seven Kushwaha faces paid off with two of these candidates emerging victorious.

One of the highlights of the polls in Bihar is the emergence of the CPI (ML)L, whose candidates Sudama Prasad and Raja Ram Singh became giant- killers in Arrah and Karakat respectively.

After joining the Opposition’s grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan, the CPI (ML)L proved itself in the 2020 Assembly polls, when the party had won 12 of 16 seats it contested.

The Congress, which had won just one Lok Sabha seat Kishanganj in 2019, also improved its tally to three seats now. It wrested the Katihar seat with senior party leader Tariq Anwar defeating the sitting JD (U) MP Dulalchand Goswami.

The Congress also wrested the Sasaram seat from the BJP. Senior Congress leader and ex-Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had represented the seat twice in the past.

Another Mahagathbandhan ally Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) led by Mukesh Sahani failed to win any seat out of three it contested.

In a jolt to both the JD(U) and the RJD, Independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav won the Purnia seat in a three-way fight, defeating the former’s sitting MP Santosh Kushwaha. The RJD’s Bima Bharti finished third. Interestingly, Rajesh Ranjan is with the Congress, which however declined to give him ticket in view of the Mahagathbandhan’s seat-sharing pact under which Purnia was given to the RJD.

Apart from Purnia, the JD (U) also lost seats such as Kishanganj, Katihar and Jehanabad.