NDA retains power in Bihar, decimates Mahagathbandhan; PM Modi, Nitish hail landslide win
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Patna/New Delhi (PTI): 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)--are on course for an over 85 per cent strike rate in 101 seats each they had contested. The alliance is set for a "200 paar" win for a three-fourth majority with BJP emerging as the single largest party, according to latest results and trends at 9.30 pm.
"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 the BJP won 87 seats, up from 74 in 2020, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(U) tasted success in 78 constituencies, up from 43. The majority mark in the 243-member Assembly is 122. The BJP and the JD(U) were leading in two and seven seats respectively.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) seat tally slipped to 24 from 75 and Congress bagged only six out of the 61 seats it contested, down from 19. RJD was leading in one.
Hailing the NDA's huge win, Prime Minister Modi said it has given a new 'MY -- Mahila and Youth' formula with the people destroying the "communal MY formula of the jungle raj people".
In an apparent reference to the Muslim-Yadav support base of the RJD, Modi said that in Bihar some parties had formulated an "MY formula" but today's victory has given a new "positive MY -- Mahila and Youth" formula.
Overcoming anti-incumbency, Chief Minister Kumar thanked people of the state for giving a "landslide" victory for the NDA.
"People of the state have expressed their confidence in our government by giving us a landslide mandate in the polls. For this, I bow to all the esteemed voters of the state, and express my heartfelt gratitude and thanks," Kumar wrote in a post on X.
He also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for his continuous support to the NDA government in the state.
A mix of state and central welfare schemes, including the monetary aid to women as part of NDA's women-centric outreach, a constant reminder of the "jungle raj" during the RJD rule by Modi and other NDA campaigners and the viability of a “double-engine” government appears to have largely contributed to their landslide victory.
Navigating the complex caste and community dynamics, NDA’s wider caste alliance that dented the Mahagatbandhan’s core vote bank, multiple welfare schemes targeted at Economically Backward Class(EBC) 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.
The NDA also appeared to have done well in Muslim-dominated constituencies, signalling a possible change in voting pattern in these segments.
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.
The party, floated by the former political strategist, failed to galvanise votes in its favour, despite a high-pitched campaign and raising pressing issues such as unemployment, migration and dearth of industries.
Celebrations erupted at the offices of BJP and JD(U) in Patna situated across the street from each other, with workers playing drums, bursting firecrackers and chanting slogans in praise of their respective leaders.
In front of the residence of the chief minister, the JD(U)'s 75-year-old national president, party workers posed for photographs holding aloft posters with the caption 'Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai'.
'Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai' --the title of a Bollywood blockbuster --neatly captured the gist of Chief Minister Kumar's "neither tired nor in a mood to retire" stance.
Shocking his rivals, Kumar, an electrical engineering graduate, had a point to prove in the latest assembly elections, which were held amid speculation of a fatigue factor, if not downright anti-incumbency, made worse by rumours of his indifferent health. He is Bihar's longest serving chief minister whilst also holding the post for his 9th term.
In the run up to the high stakes polls, Kumar, who has earned the nick name of 'sushasan babu' (the man of good governance), aggressively doled out benefits like hike in social security pensions and stipends for Jeevika and Aasha and Aanganwadi workers, besides the much touted 'Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana', as part of which over one crore women have got Rs 10,000 each in their bank accounts.
Kumar was not in the electoral fray this time too as he has consistently taken the legislative council route to enter the state legislature.
BJP's performance would further cement its position as the numero uno political force in the country and also offset whatever setback that might have been caused by last year's Lok Sabha polls when the party had to rely on allies to remain in power in the Centre.
The NDA's tally in Bihar comes in the backdrop of the BJP's back-to-back stunning performances in Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana. Last year, BJP had won 132 of the 149 seats it had contested in Maharashtra. The strong backing to Chief Minister Kumar by Modi and his ministers during their poll campaign also appeared to have paid rich dividends for the JD(U).
The LJP(RV), headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, the self-declared "Hanuman" of the Prime Minister, which was left with only 28 candidates in the fray, with nomination papers of one of its nominees getting rejected during scrutiny, won 18 seats and was leading in one constituency.
Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwah's Rashtriya Lok Morcha, both junior partners in the NDA, won five and four seats respectively. Both parties had contested six seats each. To consolidate Dalit support, the BJP banked on its two key allies--Manjhi and Paswan.
The Mahagathbandhan, which includes the RJD, the Congress and three Left parties, faced a crushing defeat, notwithstanding surveys and opinion polls showing its Chief Ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav as the most preferred leader for the top post.
Yadav, who according to Prime Minister Modi was declared as a chief ministerial candidate after the RJD put a "katta" on the head of its alliance partners, was trailing initially before he recovered ground in Raghopur, the RJD stronghold. He defeated BJP candidate Satish Kumar by 14,532 votes
Mahagatbahndhan also struggled to retain its strongholds. The Muslim and Yadav (M-Y) combination traditionally formed the bedrock of the RJD's support base in Bihar.
It was an embarrassing loss of face for the Congress, often seen as a "weak link" in the INDIA bloc.
Rahul Gandhi’s poll campaign against the BJP that revolved around his "Vote Chori"(vote theft) allegations failed to garner any support.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owais's AIMIM, which has often been accused of being a "B-team" of the BJP, won five seats. The party had contested 32 seats.
The NDA's victory in Bihar polls, which were held in two phases amid alleged irregularities in revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission, is also significant as many see it as a prelude to assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam, scheduled to be held in the next six months.
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Former railway minister Mukul Roy dies at 71
Kolkata (PTI): Former railway minister Mukul Roy, once regarded as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's most trusted lieutenant and the TMC's principal strategist, died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital here early on Monday.
He was 71, and is survived by his son, Subhranshu Roy.
He breathed his last around 1.30 am at the hospital in Salt Lake, Subhranshu Roy said.
He had been suffering from multiple ailments and was in and out of the hospital over the past two years. Family members said he had also been diagnosed with dementia and had recently gone into a coma.
His body will be taken to his residence before the last rites are performed later in the day, they said.
A former Union minister and two-time Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, Roy's four-decade-long political journey saw his stints in the Congress, TMC and the BJP.
His political career began with the Youth Congress, before he joined hands with Banerjee when she broke away from the grand old party to form the Trinamool Congress in 1998.
As a founding member, he quickly emerged as one of the key organisational pillars of the fledgling party and went on to serve as its general secretary.
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and became the party's leader in the Upper House in 2009, turning into TMC's principal troubleshooter in Delhi. In the UPA-2 government, when the TMC was a constituent, Roy first served as Minister of State for Shipping before taking over as the railway minister in 2012.
In West Bengal's political circles, Roy earned a reputation as a backroom operator deft in organisational work. Following the TMC's historic victory in 2011 that ended 34 years of the Left Front rule, he played a significant role in consolidating the party's hold in several districts, overseeing defections from the CPI(M) and the Congress, strengthening the new regime's political base.
However, his career was not without controversy. His name had surfaced in the Saradha chit fund case and the Narada sting operation.
By 2017, relations between Roy and the TMC leadership had deteriorated. In November that year, he joined the BJP in a move that altered the state's political equations. Tasked with strengthening the BJP's organisation in West Bengal, Roy was credited by party leaders with helping engineer defections from the TMC and expanding the saffron party's base ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the BJP won 18 of the state's 42 seats.
He was elected as a BJP MLA from the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. Within months, however, he returned to the TMC, triggering legal and political wrangling. Subsequently, a court disqualified him as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching parties after being elected on a BJP ticket.
Though he rejoined the TMC, Roy never regained the political centrality he once enjoyed. As his health declined, he gradually withdrew from active politics.
Often described as the 'Chanakya' of West Bengal politics during his prime, Roy remained a pivotal figure in the state's turbulent political landscape -- a strategist who operated as comfortably in Delhi's power corridors as in the backrooms of Kolkata's party offices.
Leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, condoled Roy's death.
In an X post, he wrote, "Deeply disheartened to learn about the sad demise of senior politician, Shri Mukul Roy. My sincere condolences to his family. Praying that his soul attains eternal peace. Om Shanti."
