Strong social combination led to grand alliance victory: Sushil Modi

Patna

Accepting defeat in Bihar, BJP’s state unit today said that the ‘grand alliance’ emerged as a “strong social combination” and that the party would analyse its results and poll strategy by visiting every constituency in the coming days.

Expressing satisfaction with a clear mandate, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the party would play the role of a constructive opposition and would cooperate with the new government in Bihar.

He described RJD leader Lalu Prasad as a ‘king maker’ and ‘Big Boss’ who, he said, would have a major influence on the new government.

“People have given a clear mandate to the grand alliance.

It is good that there is no fractured mandate. It is important for Bihar as it has put to end an atmosphere of political uncertainty. We respect the mandate of the people and bow before it,” Modi said, addressing a press conference.

On the reasons for the NDA’s defeat, he said, “I think they were successful in putting together a strong alliance.

One of the reasons why they were successful is that their alliance was a strong ‘social combination’.”

“Because it is a clear mandate for five years given to the grand alliance, we will help the government with our support and will play the role of a constructive opposition.

We hope the government works towards development. I congratulate all the leaders of grand alliance and have called both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad,” he said.

On Lalu Prasad, whose RJD won the highest number of seats, Modi said, “It is understandable that he will have more influence on the government. He will have more ministers.”

Modi also said it was a “cause for worry” that the tally of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has come down to half from 115 seats, and took a dig at his arrogance saying the comments made at the grand alliance press conference “were not expected of them”.

He, however, did not comment on Lalu’s unsavoury remarks made against the BJP and its leadership, saying “this is not the time for all this.”

Asked if reservation or caste factor has played a role in these polls, he said, “We will have to assess what are the reasons… Caste is always the factor, be it any state. It may not be the only factor.”

“We accept the verdict by the people and pledge to play a constructive role in the opposition to help the Nitish Kumar government in taking Bihar on the path of development over the next five years,” the former deputy chief minister said.

He said though NDA had tried its best it could not succeed and the people have “rightly given a decisive mandate in favour of one coalition which will remove political fragility and instability dogging Bihar for the past two years and more.”

The BJP leader said the party will analyse its loss and the results by talking to each candidate and visit all the constituencies in the coming days. “Our overall performance has not been good, be it BJP’s or of its alliance partners. We will analyse the results and do introspection to assess the reasons of our defeat,” he said.

The reasons for the NDA’s performance will be reviewed at the state and central level, he said but refused to pass the buck on anybody, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had addressed a number of poll meetings in the state.

“It does not happen as an individual. A party is responsible for under performance … If we have failed, something has gone wrong which will be found out during review of the verdict in days to come,” Sushil Modi said and claimed that there was total unity and a sense of purpose among all allies as far as the collective goal of the NDA was concerned.

On Lalu Prasad’s claim that the verdict has sent out a strong message for unity of opposition at the national level against the Narendra Modi government, he said that it was a state poll and its results should be read in Bihar’s perspective alone.

At the same time, the RJD chief should have restrained himself in his hour of victory while saying that he will take the battle to the national capital against the NDA government.

“By saying so he (Prasad) has displayed his arrogance,” Modi said.

Grand Alliance won due to caste polarisation: Dattatreya

Hyderabad

The Grand Alliance led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won the Assembly election due to polarisation of votes on the basis of caste, Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said today.

Dattatreya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment, told reporters here that the party (BJP) will meet and do introspection of the results.

“If you observe, mainly it (Grand Alliance’s win) is due to the caste polarisation and BJP did not achieve the desired results. We will respect peoples’ verdict. We will meet and analyse the poll results,” the BJP leader from Telangana said.

The JDU-RJD-Congress alliance is set for a massive victory in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly polls, trouncing the BJP-led grouping.

Rumblings of discontent in BJP follow party defeat in Bihar

New Delhi

Rumblings of discontent in the BJP followed the party’s disastrous performance in Bihar Assembly elections today with its president Amit Shah coming under attack over the “high-pitched” campaign crafted by him.

“It seems that the low-key GA(Grand Alliance)campaign and its decision to project soft-spoken Nitish Kumar as the Chief Ministerial candidate did the trick, with voters rejecting the high-pitched BJP campaign crafted by party president Amit Shah,” said Chandan Mitra, a BJP MP and journalist. Mitra also said there is a need to cultivate a strong local party leadership in Bihar.

Noting that it is an established fact that when casteism determines voting intentions in North Indian States, the BJP ends up as the main loser, Mitra said, “And in the attempt to match caste with caste, BJP strategists erred in their calculations.” Mitra was expressing his views in a blogpost on NDTV.

Sulking BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha termed the grand alliance’s win as “victory of democracy” and took a swipe at the top party brass, saying the issue of “Bihari versus Bahri” has been settled once and for all.

“Congratulations to Laluji & Nitishji for this victory in Bihar elections. We bow before people’s mandate. It is the victory of democracy and the people of Bihar. I salute them.

It appears that the issue of Bihari vs Bahari (and Bihari Babu’s absence) has been settled once and for all,” the actor-turned politician said in a series of tweets.

“The call of the day is introspection, modified and better strategy, teamwork and coordination in the future.

Salute once again to Biharis,” Sinha, BJP MP from Patna Sahib, advised the party leadership in another tweet.

R K Singh, a BJP MP from Bihar who had criticised the party’s ticket distribution before the polls, said there should be introspection and responsibility fixed.

“There should be introspection. There should be examination of what went wrong,” the bureaucrat-turned politcian said.

On BJP ticket distribution, Singh said, “it is not a question of thinking but a fact. Go and check up. People who were chargesheeted for crimes like dacoity were given tickets.

That is not something which I expected from my party.”

Adding salt to BJP’s wounds, NDA ally Shiv Sena hailed JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar as “mahanayak” (super hero) and said defeat “denotes decline of a leader” in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The results will pose a larger problem for Prime Minister Modi, already hamstrung by the Opposition’s strength in the Rajya Sabha. A more politically inclusive approach towards Opposition parties is what the doctor will definitely prescribe,” Chandan Mitra said.

Mitra also said that it must be borne in mind that the BJP had never emerged as the leading political force in caste-dominated Bihar.

“Thus it tried to stitch up alliances with marginal players like Upendra Kushwaha and Jitan Ram Manjhi, the extent of whose own political support was questionable,” he said.

“In order to become a viable alternative to the Nitish-Lalu combine, the BJP needs to assiduously build its base, overcoming the formidable challenge of caste alliances which tend to work against the BJP’s ideological core. In this context, the need to cultivate a powerful local leadership cannot be overstated,” he added.

Lalu’s sons win, but kin of many NDA leaders bite dust

New Delhi

The results of the Bihar assembly elections brought cheer to the family of RJD chief Lalu Prasad whose both sons made a victorious debut, but voters were not as generous towards other prominent political clans, especially those from the NDA.

Lalu’s sons Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap secured big wins in Raghopur and Mahua constituencies. Tejaswi defeated BJP’s Satish Kumar by 22,733 votes in Raghopur, a seat won by both Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi in the past, while Tej Pratap trounced HAM (Secular)’s Ravindra Ray by 28,155 votes in Mahua.

Union Minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Pashupati Kumar Paras was considered a formidable candidate for Alauli assembly seat but was thumped by Chandan Kumar of the RJD. Paras got 46049 votes but 70519 voters pressed the button in Kumar’s favour.

Another member of the clan, Paswan’s nephew Prince Raj was defeated by JD(U)’s Maheshwar Prasad in Kalyanpur.

NDA constituent, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi fielded his son Santosh Kumar Suman from Kutumba seat where he lost to Rajesh Kumar of the Congress.

Manjhi, himself failed to retain his Makhadumapur seat but Managed to win Imamganj where he defeated Udai Narayan Chaudhary, the Speaker of the outgoing assembly.

Nitish Mishra, thrice former chief minister Jagannath Mishra’s son also lost from Jhanjharpur. A three-term MLA from the seat, which his father had earlier won many times, Nitish Mishra was a cabinet minister in the Nitish Kumar and Jitan Ram Manjhi governments. When JD(U) split, he chose to side with Manjhi and was contesting the poll on BJP symbol.

Former Union Minister C P Thakur’s son Vivek Thakur, who was the BJP candidate from Brahampur polled 63303 votes but lost to RJD’s Shambhu Nath Yadav.

In Bhagalpur, BJP candidate Arijit Shaswat Choubey, son of MP Ashwani Choubey too lost to Congress candidate Ajeet Sharma.