Bihar Election: As Tejashwi’s ‘lantern’ flickers, Nitish scrapes through in a fierce fight

Defying all exit poll predictions, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is all set to get a fourth straight term in Bihar. The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance.

Putting all the pollsters wrong, the BJP emerged the single largest party within the NDA by romping home in 73 constituencies, while its ruling alliance partner the JD (U) could scrape through in 43 constituencies, 28 seats less than the 71 seats it won in 2015. The other two NDA allies – the HAM and the VIP - won four each.

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In the bitterly and fiercely-fought election, the RJD, which led the five-party Mahagatbandhan, emerged as the single largest party with 77 seats. Its ally Congress, which contested 70 seats, could win merely 19. However, the Mahagatbandhan got a shot in the ‘Left’ arm when its three alliance partners - the CPI, CPM and the CPI-ML - together won 17 out of 29 seats it contested. The biggest gainer was CPI-ML which won 11 out of 19 seats, while the CPI and the CPM won three each, thereby taking the Mahagatbandhan tally to 113.

CERTIFICATES DENIED

However, amid cliffhanger, the RJD, late on Tuesday night, released the list of “119 candidates” (although the Mahagatbandhan had won 113 seats) and protested to the EC officials saying that their winning candidates were not being given certificates. The NDA tally, however, remained at 123. Meanwhile, the AIMIM won five, while the LJP and an Independent won one seat each in the 243-member House.

As NDA inched towards majority, the BJP reiterated that as announced earlier by the top party leadership, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president JP Nadda, Nitish Kumar will be the next Chief Minister of Bihar despite the BJP winning 29 seats more than the JD (U).

“It’s true that we got less number of seats but it’s equally true that Nitish Kumar will be the next Chief Minister,” said JD (U) chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh, urging the RJD to concede defeat instead of blaming the EC or the Returning Officers (ROs).

Meanwhile, the Mahgatbandhan Chief Ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav won from Raghopur in Vaishali. Tejashwi’s elder brother Tej Pratap too triumphed from Hasanpur in Samastipur.

However, former MP from Patna Sahib, Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha, who made his poll debut from Bankipur in Patna on a Congress ticket, lost to BJP’s Nitin Navin.

Sharad Yadav’s daughter Shubhasini Yadav, who was a surprise entry into Bihar politics and made her debut as a Congress candidate from Bihariganj in Madhepura (once her father’s Lok Sabha seat) too lost the election.

Meanwhile, another debutant Shreyasi Singh, the shooter who won gold in the Commonwealth Games, and is daughter of former Union Minister late Digvijay Singh, won her debut poll from Jamui as the BJP nominee. She was backed whole-heartedly by the LJP chief Chirag Paswan, who is, incidentally, an LJP MP from naxal-infested Jamui.

Incidentally, Nitish and his deputy Sushil Modi did not contest the Assembly poll as they are already members of the Legislative Council (MLC).