BJP sweeps Bihar, JD- U, RJD, Congress crushed
Cashing in on Narendra Modi’s promise of a strong and clean national leadership, the BJP- led threeparty alliance in Bihar on Friday won a never- before landslide of 31 out of the state’s total 40 seats and pushed the ambitious ruling JD( U) and an apparently resurgent RJD- Congress combine to the farthest corners.
The BJP, which had ruled Bihar in alliance with the JD( U) for about eight years till parting ways in June 2013, achieved the towering results mainly by deftly building bridges across the state’s caste divisions while playing the caste cards flawlessly.
While the saffron party, which contested on 30 seats, won as many as 22 against its 2009 tally of 12 seats while in alliance with the JD( U), its new- found pre- poll allies Lok Janshakti Party ( LJP) and Rastriya Lok Samata Party ( RLSP), which contested on seven and three seats, won six and three seats respectively.
Both the Lalu Prasad Yadav- led RJD and the JD( U) of chief minister Nitish Kumar clearly failed to make any gains out of their nifty social engineering, emphatic championing of secularism and relentless targeting of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The JD( U), which contested on 38 seats on its own and supported the CPI on two other seats, managed to win only two seats — Nalanda and Purnea — against its 2009 score of 20 seats while in alliance with the BJP. Most of the JD( U)’ s sitting MPs lost and nearly 15 JD( U) candidates lost their security deposits.