With he himself not eligible to contest elections, his wife Rabri Devi unwilling to return to the hurly burly of politics, and sons Tejaswi and Tej Pratap too young to handle the pressure that comes with the hot seat, Lalu declared Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Minister even if RJD won more seat than JD(U).
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He also asserted that despite the bitter campaign, he will not hold “grudge against anybody and will work together with all” keeping a positive mindset as he sought the Centre’s cooperation for the progress of Bihar.
The defeat for BJP is expected to dent Modi’s chances of consolidating power and speeding up economic reforms as victory in Bihar’s state election would have helped him build his party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Indian parliament, where the ruling party’s lack of a majority has allowed the opposition to block economic reforms he sees as vital for jobs and growth.
“Nitish Kumar is greatly focused on the kind of governance which touches the common man, whether they are women, girl children or those at the bottom of the pyramid”.
Thursday’s exit polls failed to present a clear picture. But the BJP attempted its best to tarnish his image mouthing fears of “jungle raj” if he took power with Lalu Prasad. He called Modi “a RSS pracharak” and vowed to mount a nationwide campaign against the BJP-led central government.
As the vote count began at 8am across Bihar, initially it seemed that the BJP and its allies were forging ahead. Muslims voted in favour of the “Grand Alliance”. While Lalu Yadav’s RJD has emerged as the single largest party, Congress performed surprisingly well which has won seven seats and is leading on other 19.
While Nitish Kumar himself did not contest the elections, Lalu is barred from contesting because of his conviction in a corruption case.
To defeat the BJP, Mr Kumar and his Janata Dal United had assembled a major alliance, comprising not only the Congress – the BJP’s traditional rival – but also the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which has always been Mr Kumar’s primary opposition in the state.
Bihar has traditionally been a low-turnout state.
Amit Shah, the BJP’s president, drew criticism for saying that if the party lost in Bihar, fireworks would be set off in Muslim-dominated Pakistan, India’s blood rival.
The turnout of 56.80% represents an increase from 52.65% during the state polls in 2010. “He should’ve publically rebuked a few people who spoke out of turn”, he said.
Still, the current turnout is below that in most states which went to the polls after the general elections previous year, including Delhi (67.2%), Maharashtra (63.08%), Jammu and Kashmir (65.52%), Haryana (76.13%) and Jharkhand (66.42%).
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They also carried out a relentless campaign against efforts to communalise and polarise Bihar. The Election Commission started working with a comprehensive plan six months ago, specially for clean electoral rolls. If it needs to win the only thing any party, including the BJP, can really do is first deliver on its promises and then promise more of it.
