Bihar bypolls 2014: Unlikely ties pay off for JD(U), RJD and Congress
Alliance between Nitish, Lalu and Congress hits BJP
By : anand s.t. das
Update: 2014-08-26 02:53 GMT
Patna: The “grand alliance” between former rivals, the RJD and the ruling JD(U) along with the Congress put a resurgent BJP on the mat in bypolls for 10 Bihar Assembly seats.
Both RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar exulted in their new success. They termed the results as the “clear mood of Bihar’s people” and a rejection of BJP’s “divisive policies” just three months after the saffron party and its regional allies swept the LS polls in Bihar.
The BJP leaders, however, dismissed the bypoll results as those purely influenced by local issues and bearing no statewide public support for the JD(U) and the RJD.
In the August 21 bypolls, RJD won three seats (Chapra, Mohiuddinnagar and Rajnagar), JD(U) won two (Jale and Parbatta) and Congress won the crucial Bhagalpur seat from BJP after 23 years. BJP, which contested in nine seats, won the rest four seats (Hajipur, Narkatiaganj, Mohania and Banka) while its ally LJP lost the lone seat it contested for (Parbatta.)
Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi conceded that the bypoll results were less than expected for the saffron party and that it had won in some seats where it had fared badly in LS polls.