Assembly elections are important not only because state leaders wield significant power, but also because parties gain seats in India’s upper house of parliament, where the BJP lacks a majority.
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An average of six exit polls on Thursday last predicted a hung assembly in Bihar with the Grand Alliance led by the JD(U)-RJD leading with 119 seats followed closely by the NDA at 117 in a 243 member House, stated a Times News Network(TNN) report. “We will also strongly support the movement against intolerance started by writers, filmmakers and intellectuals”, said Lalu, and added, “After this crushing defeat, Modi has to resign and go back to Gujarat”. The Congress would get 27 seats.
On the rival side, the NDA was ahead in 66 seats.
The BJP won 53 seats out of 157 it contested and along with its allies could only bag 58 seats. The Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-Liberation had won three seats and Independents four.
Modi tweeted that he had called to congratulate Kumar over his election triumph. “The clamour against Narendra Modi within the BJP will increase”, said Dr Shaibal Gupta, from Bihar’s Asian Development Research Institute. Across Goa there is a feeling that BJP has let down the electorate and while the party may ignore this, it can not blind itself to the result in Bihar, which unequivocally states that the BJP wave is ebbing.
To a query, the RJD chief said he would perform his responsibility and respect such a huge mandate.
Modi was up against an unlikely alliance of two powerful local leaders, Kumar and his predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has served time in prison for corruption. PM Modi rather than talking of development used acerbic wit and direct attacks to pin down Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav.
The RJD, which waas trounced, could manage only 22 out of the 168 seats it contested against the JD(U)-BJP coalition and had a vote share of 18.84 per cent.
Initially, many television channels had projected the NDA to be in the lead. The BJP alliance got 38 per cent.
“He will have to bow down to the verdict of Bihar and pursue an accommodative and adjustive kind of politics now”.
Kishor, 37, who conceptualised and implemented Modi’s popular chai pe charcha initiative, substituted it with parcha pe charcha (discussion over pamphlets) under which Nitish’s poll managers sought feedback from people on the state governments performance over the past decade. That is not something which I expected from my party.
He brushed aside a question on the demand for action against him.
The final results are closer to the Axis polls with the Lalu-Nitish alliance victorious on more than a two-thirds seats in the assembly. Although a regional poll, the Bihar election turned into a referendum on the prime minister after he criss crossed the state addressing numerous election rallies. “Rejecting all of that, the people of Bihar have chosen us”. His victory was the need in Bihar.
“The call of the day is introspection, modified and better strategy, teamwork and coordination in the future”.
The defeat could also dampen the mood as Mr Modi heads to Britain for the first bilateral visit by an Indian leader since 2006.
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Trinamul sources, however, said the Bihar results were “a mixed bag” for Mamata, reducing the BJP threat in Bengal and encouraging her national ambitions while potentially aiding a Left recovery, perhaps even a Left-Congress alliance.
