The ruling NDA decimated the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar on Friday to retain power, reaffirming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s enduring appeal and dealing a body blow to the Congress and ally RJD.
The massive scale of the victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can be gauged from the fact that its two main constituents–BJP and JD(U)– clocked a nearly 85 per cent strike rate in 101 seats each they had contested. NDA secured a “200 paar” win for a three-fourths majority with BJP emerging as the single largest party. “The people of Bihar, with this massive victory and their unshakable confidence, have taken the state by storm (garda uda diya),” Prime Minister Modi told cheering party workers at BJP headquarters in Delhi in the evening after accepting their greetings by waving a ‘gamcha’.
While BJP won 89 seats, up from 74 in 2020, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(U) tasted success in 85 constituencies, up from 43. The majority mark in the 243-member Assembly is 122. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) seat tally slipped to 25 from 75, and Congress bagged only six out of the 61 seats it contested, down from 19. Overcoming anti-incumbency, Chief Minister Kumar thanked the people of the state for giving a “landslide” victory for the NDA. He also expressed gratitude to PM Modi for his continuous support to NDA government in the state.
A mix of state and central welfare schemes, including the monetary aid to women as part of the NDA’s women-centric outreach, a constant reminder of the “jungle raj” during RJD rule by Modi and other NDA campaigners appears to have largely contributed to their landslide victory.
Navigating the complex caste and community dynamics, NDA’s wider caste alliance that dented the MGB’s core vote bank, multiple welfare schemes targeted at Economically Backward Class households, huge support from women who overwhelmingly supported the liquor ban, and from young voters also helped the five-party alliance. One of the most striking features of this election was the extraordinary turnout of women voters.
Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), dubbed the ‘X factor’ in the Bihar polls and whose candidates were in the fray in all but three of the seats, came a cropper.
‘Congress is sinking its allies,’ says PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing party workers and supporters at BJP headquarters in Delhi after NDA’s landslide win in Bihar, congratulated people for reposing faith in democracy and the Election Commission by voting in record numbers in the assembly elections.
In a scathing attack on Congress, PM Modi said it has no positive vision for the country and he had warned the Congress’ allies that the party is a parasite and a liability for them.
He said Bihar assembly win is the beginning of a new era and the state will progress faster in the next five years.
Modi predicted the possibility of the Congress undergoing another split and warned its allies that they need to be wary of the Grand Old Party.
“The Congress criticises the Election Commission, makes frivolous complaints about baseless issues like ‘vote chori’, divides people on basis of religion and caste… The Congress has no positive vision for the country,” he said in his address. “The truth is that today, Congress, and I say this very seriously, today Congress has become the Muslim League Maoist Congress…,” he said.
‘Result truly surprising, polls were unfair’; Rahul
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that assembly election results in Bihar were ‘truly surprising’, adding that Mahagathbandhan could not achieve a victory because polls were ‘not fair’ from the very beginning. However, he also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to those people in Bihar, who voted for the grand alliance in the assembly elections.
“This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning,” Gandhi posted on X in Hindi. “This fight is for the protection of the Constitution and democracy. The Congress Party and INDIA alliance will deeply review this result and make their efforts to save democracy even more effective.” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also expressed disappointment over the party’s performance, but said the grand old party will continue to fight against those forces that are trying to weaken the democracy in India by misusing constitutional institutions. He also thanked those voters who supported the party in the Bihar polls.
“We will conduct a thorough study of the election results…,” Kharge posted on X.