NDA sweeps Bihar, wins 39 out of 40

Patna: In a historic mandate for the Lok Sabha polls 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA won the elections with the thumping majority.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the spectacular victory of BJP led NDA. While talking to reporters in Patna Mr Kumar said that “Both Centre, as well as the state government, worked for the development. This result is a blessing to the NDA and it also clearly shows what kind of government people of Bihar want. I assure them that we will continue to work for the development and public safety”.

In Bihar, the Congress along with three other grand alliance partners — Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) failed in saving their electoral space after the poll results on Thursday.

The final result shows that the NDA in the state won 39 out of 40  seats while the grand alliance managed to bag only one seat in Bihar.

Though the RJD and Congress is yet to assess their massive defeat, political analysts are of the opinion that RJD Chief Lalu Yadav’s absence during the poll campaign and Prime Minister Narendra Modi factor and nationalism issue turned out to be a bigger challenge for the grand alliance in Bihar.

In 2014 parliamentary election, the NDA minus Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) had won 31 out of 40 seats. However this time according to JD(U) leaders Chief Minister Nitish Kumar too emerged as a major factor “due to his seven resolves for development, successful liquor prohibition across the state and several social reform programs”.

“People voted on Narendra Modi’s face and Nitish Kumar’s developmental work in Bihar. This result is also an indication that the NDA is going to win the 2020 assembly elections with a thumping majority”, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.

However, in this election political experts had predicted a tough contest for the NDA in view of the pre-poll alliance among RJD, Congress and three other regional parties including Mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM and Koeri leader Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP but the alliance suffered a setback.

The RJD had also distributed a sizeable number of seats to all its allies including one to the CPI-ML in order to stop the division of secular, OBC and EBC votes.

Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM was the first to accept the poll defeat. Speaking with this newspaper after the results HAM spokesperson Danish Rizwan said, “We have accepted people’s mandate. We will sit and analyze why the grand alliance lost so badly in the Lok Sabha polls”. RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha also accepted the defeat and said “instead of blaming others we should sit and assess our performance in this election. The result shows that the opposition failed in reading the mood of people”.

Both Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha had contested from two seats each but were defeated by NDA candidates. Other prominent grand alliance leaders to face defeat were the film star turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav and Lalu Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti.

Congress nominee Shatrughan Sinha was pitted against Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib Seat. He was defeated by a margin of 1.5 Lakh votes. Similarly, the prestigious battle was also seen in Patliputra where RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti was contesting against Union Minister Ram Kripal Yadav.

Besides former JNUSU president and CPI candidate from Begusarai seat, Kanhaiya Kumar was also defeated by Union minister and BJP nominee Giriraj Singh from Begusarai seat.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analysis et al. Happy reading.