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Chirag Paswan’s LJP gained only a single seat and secured lower than six per cent of the vote share (File)
Nitish Kumar appears to be like set to return as chief minister of Bihar (for a sixth time) regardless of his social gathering’s shoddy efficiency within the election; the Janata Dal United’s (JDU) went from 71 seats in 2015 to 43 this 12 months.
One huge issue within the JDU’s downturn in fortunes is believed to be Chirag Paswan and his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which fielded candidates towards the Chief Minister’s social gathering in each seat and wound up consuming into the JDU vote share.
The LJP could have gained simply the one seat (Matihani, the place Raj Kumar Singh secured 333 votes greater than Narendra Singh of the JDU) however secured 5.66 per cent of the full vote share. The BJP, which emerged because the senior member within the NDA, secured 19.46 per cent, and the JDU 15.39 per cent.
In Mahnar seat, which is a part of Vaishali district, the JDU’s Umesh Kushwaha remains to be smarting from his defeat by the hands of the RJD candidate – the spouse of a neighborhood strongman and politician – by fewer than 8,000 votes.
The x-factor in Mr Kushwaha’s defeat – Rabindra Kumar Singh, 53, a businessman-politician contesting on an LJP ticket. He secured 31,256 votes, most of which, Mr Kushwaha claims, had been meant for Nitish Kumar and himself.
“The truth is that if the NDA would have been together we would have got 200 seats. But because of the LJP factor, the JDU faced a lot of losses. This was his (Chirag Paswan’s) aim,” Mr Singh stated, including, “We did not have a strategy to harm the JDU.. the people were already fed up of them. We had our own campaign strategy of ‘Bihar first, Bihari first.”
However, Mr Kushwaha has an understandably completely different take and alleges conspiracy.
“The votes that were part of my calculation – for example the NDA vote – I did not get. The vote transferred to the LJP and also the RJD… if I got the whole NDA vote I would have won. The BJP vote did not transfer to me. What can I say?” he stated.
Mr Kushwaha additionally claimed that the LJP secured a far better variety of votes than they need to have, given caste combos and sentiments at play. “My vote has transferred to them. It could be a conspiracy,” he declared.
Over in Mukundpur Bhat village, which is a part of the Mahnar seat, there are additional indications of how the LJP-JDU equation performed out on the bottom.
Ashok Kumar Singh, 62, and a member of the Thakur group, voted for the JDU in 2015. This 12 months he voted for the LJP (whose candidate was from the identical caste) – a sign of how the LJP cleverly deliberate and ate into the NDA’s voter base.
“I used to support the JDU but now there is a difference. Earlier Nitish Kumar attacked corruption and seized properties. He tried to give seats to the LJP that were in RJD-dominated areas – what should Chirag Paswan have done?” he asks.
The BJP has denied claims that it had a pre-poll take care of the LJP to just do what it did – drastically cut back Nitish Kumar’s affect and place within the NDA. The Chief Minister’s poor efficiency has additionally triggered rumours he could possibly be changed, because the BJP appears to be like to exert its newfound authority.
That has been dominated out by the BJP however Sunday’s assembly of the brand new legislature will present extra concrete proof of how the brand new JDU-BJP relationship will work.
The subsequent election in Bihar remains to be fairly a while away and, in that point, it is going to be attention-grabbing to see how this case performs out.
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