With just a few months left for the Assembly poll, Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) received a setback in the state’s Legislative Council election on Friday as the Opposition NDA bagged 14 out of 24 seats.
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Ex- Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told mediapersons here today that despite all efforts made by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the grand alliance of RJD-JD(U)-Congress-NCP suffered a big jolt in elections for 24 seats of Bihar Legislative Council from local bodies quota.
The BJP, on a standalone basis, secured as many as 12 seats, while its ally Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won one seat.
The “secular” combine of JD(U) and RJD had contested 10 seats each while Congress had put up candidates in three and NCP in one.
An independent candidate Ritlal Yadav, who is lodged in Beur jail here, is leading from the Patna seat. He is a hardcore criminal. The JD candidates – Reena Devi and Dinesh Prasad Singh registered victory from Nalanda and Muzaffarpur seats, respectively.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, however, said the election outcome did not reflect people’s opinion as only a limited number of voters participated in it.
Altogether, 152 contestants were in the fray for the 24 council seats.
The Election Commission, however, had officially announced the results of only 20 seats till the time of going to the press. “They have collectively rejected the secular alliance and reposed faith in the NDA to deliver the goods”.
The voters for the Council election were drawn from 10 to 15 wards in each of the village panchayats in the State which makes the victory sweeter for the BJP which is normally seen as an urban-centric party.
“We lost some seats like Siwan, Gopalganj and Saran with narrow margin. BJP will form the next government in Bihar, that is for sure”, said party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain. “Division of our votes could have been a factor behind losing at these places”, he said.
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“The results have not been up to our expectations and we will try and analyze the reason behind poor performance”, said Lalu.
